A Descent Without a Parachute.

Manawatu Herald, Volume III, Issue III, 28 March 1891, Page 2

A Descent Without a Parachute.

A remarkable incident in connection with All Saints', Derby,, is charmingly told by Mary Howitt. It relates to two boys who.adventuted, to capture a jackdaw's nest'fronfa. a crevics under tha belfry window. It was impossible to achieve their object while standing within the building, and equally out of the question to reach the nest from below.*""*^ tlir « mSdua opWrtf&di- 1 adopted by the boya was to,pu£^ plank through the window. The bigger boy balanced it by sitting on the end within, and the lightest lad fixed himself on the outside ! end. From that dangerous position he he reached the object of his quest. He found in the- nest five ■ fledged,; young birds, and announced Che news to his comrade. " Five are there ? " replied he ; "then 1 I'll haye three 1" " Three!" exclaimed the other indignantly ; no, I ran all the danger, and I will have the three.! 1 " You shall not !" replied the voice from the in-. terior. " Promise me three, or I'll drop you." " Drop me and welcome!" replied the intrepid youth perched on the trembling piece of wood "in the medio." Strange to relate, the youngster alighted to the ground more than a hundred feet<, below unharmed. "At the moment of his fall," says Mary Howitt, ."' he was holding his prize by the legs, , two in one hand and , three in the' other, and the birds finding them* selves descending instinctively fluttered out their pinions. But it was not these alone that saved the boy. He had on a stout new carter's frock, secured round the neck, and this filling with. air from. beneath, buoyed^ him up like a baloon, and he deVv scended smoothly to. . the grqund,, alighting like a cat on his legs, and. then, looking up, he exclaimed to his companion, " Now you shall have • none !' and ran away, sound -in limb, to the astonishment of the inhabitants, wh»r\with conceivable fco^roiy had witriGHserl his descpnt."