Page:Boy scouts in the White Mountains; the story of a long hike (IA boyscoutsinwhite00eato).pdf/258

 the floor of the ravine. Lou sat down immediately looking, as Peanut said, "some seasick."

"I guess I was never cut out for rock climbing," poor Lou declared. "I wouldn't have gone, and worried you, Mr. Rogers, if I'd known it would make me dizzy like that."

"You'd probably get used to it," the Scout Master answered, "but I guess we'll not experiment any more just now, where there's no path. Look, our friends are almost up."

The boys, who had forgotten the two men, turned and saw them far above, working carefully toward the summit of the wall. They shouted, and waved their hats, and the men waved back, though the Scouts could hear no voices.

"Gee, and folks have climbed those side walls, too, eh?" said Peanut. "Believe me, real mountain climbing is some work!"

"It is, surely," Mr. Rogers said. "But in the Alps, of course, people go roped together, and if one falls, the rest brace and the rope holds him. How would you like to climb that gully if it was all ice and snow instead of rock, and you had to cut steps all the way with an ice ax, for ten thousand feet?"

"Say, there'd have to be a pretty big pile of twenty dollar gold pieces waiting at the top," answered Peanut.