The writer afterwards learned that the main fact of the story was true, and, that the hero of the story was still living in Virginia.

This foolhardy boy, whose name was Pepper, climbed up the rock to write his name above the rest.  Pepper climbed up by holding to little broken places in the rocks till he had got above the names of all the other climbers.  He ventured to climb till he had passed the marks which people say are part of Washington’s name.  Here Pepper held fast with one hand, while he scratched his name in the rock.

His companions were far below him.  He could not get down again.  The rock face was too smooth.  He could not stoop to put his hands down into the cracks where his feet were.  If he had tried to, he would have lost his hold, and been dashed to pieces on the rocks below.

There was nothing to do now but to climb out from under the bridge, and so up the face of the rock to the top of the gorge.  He must do this or die.

Painfully clinging to the rock with his toes and his fingers, he worked his way up.  Sometimes a crevice in the rock helped him.  Sometimes he had to dig a place with his knife in order to get a hold.  It seemed that each step would be his last.

The few people living in the neighborhood heard of his situation, and gathered below and above to look at him.  They watched him with breathless anxiety.  His friends expected to see him dashed to pieces at any moment.

As the time wore on, he worked his way up.  He also got farther out from under the bridge.  He held on like a cat.  He hooked his fingers into every crack he could find.  He dug holes with his dull knife.  When he could find a little bush in the rocks, he thought himself lucky.

Men let down ropes to him, but the ropes did not reach him.  They tied one rope to another so as to reach farther down, but he was too far under the bridge.  The people hardly dared to speak or to breathe.

At last he began to get out at the side of the bridge where he could be seen from above.  His strength was almost gone.  His knife was too much worn to be of any use.  He could not cling to the rock much longer.

A rope with a noose in it was swung close to him.  He let go his grip on the rock, and threw his arms and body into the noose.  In a moment he swung clear of the rock, and dangled in the air.  The rope drew tight about his body and held him.  Young Pepper knew no more.  He was drawn up over the rocks to the summit quite unconscious.

Years afterward he became a man of distinction in his State.  But when any of his friends asked Colonel Pepper about his climbing out from under the Natural Bridge, he would say, “Yes; I did that when I was a foolish boy, but I don’t like to think about it.”

A FOOT RACE FOR LIFE.

In 1803 that part of our country which lies west of the Mississippi was almost unknown to the white men.  In that year the President sent Captain Lewis and Captain Clark to see what the country was like.  They went up the Missouri River and across the Rocky Mountains.  Then they went down the Columbia River to the Pacific Ocean.  It took them more than two years to make the trip there and back.