“Why are we allowed to sit in the sunshine, then, if there is so much sorrow in the world?”

“You are saved for some work.  When the worn laborers now in the field can do no more, perhaps you will be called forth.”

“O, Dawn, your words thrill me.  Then we may not always be as happy as now?” and her glance seemed to turn inward on her joyous heart.

“You may be far happier, but not so full of life’s pleasures.”

“Yes; I remember the deep, strong current, and the ripples.  Let us go on, Dawn.  I feel, I don’t know how, but strange.  Shall we start?”

“Certainly; I wait your move.  Come, Jessie, show me another phase of your nature.  I have seen how gentle you are; now go.”

At the word, the creature seemed to fly through the air, so swiftly did she leap over the ground, and Arrow was left behind.

At noon they stopped at a house on the mountain side, the home of an acquaintance of Mrs. Austin’s, to refresh themselves and their horses.

“I have brought you to some strange people,” said Mrs. Austin, as they alighted, and a boy came and led their horses to the stable.

“Strange; in what way?”

“O; they believe in all sorts of supernatural things-in the doctrine of transmigration, second-sight, and every other impossible and improbable thing.”

“I am delighted.  I shall be most happy to see them.”

“Because you yourself are so much inclined that way?”

“No.  I should be more curious to see them if I were not interested in the things you have mentioned.  But now I shall meet kindred souls, and in those I always find delight.”

“I’ve half a mind to take you home without even an introduction, for your impudence; as though I was not a ‘kindred soul.’”

“It’s too late, now, for here comes a lady and gentleman to welcome you.”

“Miss Bernard, my friend Miss Wyman, Mr. Bernard.”

Dawn took their proffered hands which seemed to thrill with a welcome, and they led the way to a large, old-fashioned parlor.  The house was one of those delightful land-marks of the past generation, which we sometimes see.  It stood on a high hill, or rather on a mountain shelf, shaded by lofty trees which seemed like sentinels stationed about to protect it from all intrusion.  No innovations of modern improvement had marred the general keeping of the grounds and buildings, for any change would have been an injury to the general harmony of the whole.  A large, clean lawn sloped to a woody edge in front, and in the rear of the dwelling were clusters of pines and oaks.

Miss Bernard could not be described in a book, nor sensed in a single interview, yet we must lay before the reader an outline to be filled by the imagination.  She was a blending of all the forces, mental, moral, and spiritual.  Her face was full of thought, without the sharp, defined lines, so common to most women of a nervous temperament.  It impressed you at once with vigor and power; chastened by a deep, spiritual light, which shone over it like that of the declining sun upon a landscape.  It seemed to burst from within, not having the appearance of proceeding from dross burning away, but like a radiance native to the soul, a part and quality of it, not an ignition which comes from friction and war within.