Page 119 - A Little Bush Maid

"Did you ever throw anything over?" asked Wally. His wonderment was
subsiding and the boy in him woke up again.

"No good," said Jim. "You never see it again. T’ve thrown a stick in up

above, and it simply whisks over and gets sucked underneath the curtain of
water at once, and disappears altogether until it reaches the smooth water,
ever so far down."

"Say you went over yourself?"

"Wouldn’t be much left of you," Jim answered, with a laugh. "The bed of
the creek’s simply full of rocks--you can see a spike sticking up here and

there in the rapids. We’ve seen sheep come down in flood-time--they get
battered to bits. T don’t think T’ll try any experiments, thank you, young

Wally."

"You always were a disobliging critter," Wally grinned.

"Another time a canoe came over," Jim said. "Tt belonged to two chaps

farther up--they’d just built it, and were out for the first time, and got down
too near the falls. They didn’t know much about managing their craft, and
when the suck of the water began to take them along they couldn’t get out

of the current. They went faster and faster, struggling to paddle against the
stream, instead of getting out at an angle and making for the bank--which

they might have done. At last they could hear the roar of the falls quite
plainly."

"What happened to them?" asked Wally. "Did they go over?"

"Well, they reckoned it wasn’t healthy to remain in the canoe," said Jim. "Tt
was simply spinning along in the current, and the falls were almost in sight.
So they dived in, on opposite sides--the blessed canoe nearly tipped over

when they stood up, and only the shock of the cross drive kept her right. Of
course the creek’s not so very wide, even farther up beyond the falls, and

the force of their spring sent them nearly out of the current. They could
both swim well, and after a struggle they got to the banks, just in time to