Parkhurst Boys, and Other Stories of School LifeReed, Talbot Baines
General
Parkhurst Boys, and Other Stories of School Life
Reed, Talbot Baines
Schools -- Fiction
5 a.m.--Been sharpening the pencil with my teeth. Rather a poor
breakfast; never mind, I shall have a rousing appetite when I get to the
bottom. May tip that waiter possibly, if he brings the grub up sharp.
Now I'm starting down. I shall go down to Dungeon Ghyl the way I came,
I fancy. If I went down to Wastdale, I might meet those Cambridge
fellows again, and I wouldn't care for that. It would mortify them too
much to know what they've missed. Ta! ta! Scafell Pike, old man, keep
yourself warm. I'll leave you my _Daily News_, in case you want it.
8 a.m.--Been all this time getting half-way down. Can scarcely crawl.
Going up hill's nothing, but the bumping you get coming down, when
you're as stiff as a poker, and coughing like an old horse, is a
caution. Had a good mind to ask a shepherd I met half an hour ago to
give me a leg down, but didn't like to; so I told him I'd just been to
the top to see the sunrise, and it was a fine morning. All but added,
"I suppose you haven't got a crust of bread in your pocket?" but pulled
up in time. Pity to spoil my appetite for breakfast at Dungeon Ghyl.
Ugh! if I sit here I shall rust up, and not be able to move. _Must_ go
on.
10 a.m.--Top of Rosset Ghyl. Not very swell time to get from the top of
the Pike here in five hours. All a chance whether I get down at all,
now--I'm about finished up. Wish those Cambridge fellows--
Here the diary ends abruptly; but, in case our readers are curious to
know the end of our hero's adventure, they will be interested to learn
that at the identical moment when the writer reached this point in his
diary, the Cambridge fellows _did_ turn up. They had, indeed, been out
searching the hills from very early morning for the wanderer. As he did
not arrive the night before at Wastdale, they had concluded he had given
up the ascent, and returned to Dungeon Ghyl. But when early that
morning a guide had come over from Dungeon Ghyl, and reported that the
young gentleman had certainly not returned there, the two 'Varsity men
became alarmed, and turned out to search. There was no sign of him on
the Wastdale side of the mountain; and, getting more and more alarmed,
they went on to the summit. There they discovered a crushed-up _Daily
News_ and two or three stained pages of a guide-book. Glad of any clue,
they followed the track down towards Dungeon Ghyl, and at last came upon
the poor fellow, fairly exhausted with hunger, fatigue, and rheumatism.
They gave him what partially revived him, and then with the care and
tenderness of two big brothers carried him down the steep side of Rosset
Ghyl, and so on to the hotel. There they kept him under their special
care, day and night, and never left him till he was well enough to
return home to his anxious family.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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