Rocky Mountain Sam — page 68: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

Ps ROCKY MOUNTAIN SAM. o9 who gazed upon the approaching phantom with a terror almost as supreme as that which had mastered his comrade. He did not lose his seat, however, and by this time the luck- less wight at the end of the cord had so far freed his mouth of the tar as to give utterance to intelligible sounds, and be- gan to salute him with a torrent of jargon, which was prob- ably an explanation of his extraordinary predicament. Be that as it may, his words seemed to dissipate his com- rade’s fears and excite his sympathy, for he made a sudden spring from his perch, and clasping the other about the abdomen, they swung together clear of the tree, bringing themselves halfway to the ground by the sudden jerk of their double weight. “Ballast, Sam! Ont with it, or theyll have us to the ground!” bawled the professor, and as Sam promptly heaved over a heavy sand-sack the balloon quickly arose, carrying up the two Indians with it far from the surface of mother earth. : ‘This is right jolly sport.” said Sam, looking over the side and laughing most heartily. . “Yes, funny—much funny,” said little Fayaway, also looking over—with less of real amusement than horror, be it recorded to her credit—with her hand laid upon her lov- ers arm. : ‘How strikingly do such simple spectacles as these bring home to us the fallacy of human hopes, and the uncertainty, the unreality of this fleeting dream which we call human life,” calmly philosophized the crack-brained professor, as he blandly fixed his eyes upon the struggling forms below. “This is truly an interesting and instructive study.” “P’raps it is,” said Sam, dryly; ‘“‘but you won't be able to study the lower cuss long, fur he can’t get.a fair hold on account of the tar, an’ I take it he’s slowly slippin’ off.” ‘<I trust he will stick until we can cross the mountain to the Indian encampment,” said the other, beginning to work away at the fan-wheel again. ‘I want to drop these fellows as presents to Firefoot. Must we go higher up for wind: No; there’s a little breeze now.” There came, indeed, a little puff of wind, and with the aid of this and the great fan-wheel, the great balloon began to career northward at a few thousand feet above the earth. ‘«‘Ain’t you afeard we'll scrape them fellows against the mountain?” said Sam. ) comic 900 (ee)