up a mast with a broad leaf sail, and flaunted from its peak a pennon of grass. While the others sailed ships by the multitude, she worked steadfastly at one. When the sides rose fairly, and the hull was hollowed out for loading, she put on board the parti-colored autumn leaves, ox-eye daisies, yellow Jacob's ladders, tardy blue violets, pale lobelia, purple lion's-heart, and frail white asters. When the flower-bat was full, she laid it on the water, as an offering to the sprite of the stream. The silvan divinity received the gift with favor; the gaudy flower-boat floated to the Fortunate Isles; it made a landing in Mr. Shafto's cove, and took dispatches from him to Cathay; it touched where the patroness of the red men sat forlorn, and received from her an acorn; then it sailed to midstream, and seemed there to drop anchor, for it lay moored in the sunshine, held by invisible hands. There it lay all the bright hours until they left the place, and they took its memory with them, a creation of singular beauty, held between the water and the sun. Perchance the stream was a fairy stream; maybe no winters lock it with ice, no storms descend upon it, no frosts bite its borders, no winds rave above it, but with musical ripples, painted banks and sunny skies, it will hold that bright barque on its bosom forever. When another day dawned here at the world's end, it was Dame Crumb's turn to choose, and she ordained that the party should be three jolly stragglers, come from Nowhere, and going Anywhere. They therefore took each a staff and a packet of pepper sauce, and wandered forth. Oddly enough, they brought up in a grave-yard; the fence was down, and, like many other people, they were in before they were aware. They faced two nice marbles, where an inconsolable wife and mother had commemorated her loss in verse. "It is spelled wrong," said the astute Dame. "The metre is astray," quoth Bobby Shafto. "It is very cheering," said the Old Woman. "How pleasant to know that this survivor has not dragged out weary days with a broken heart; nobody can be very unhappy who is capable of telling their woes in such execrable poetry." They passed on, and the Dame declared that Bobby must collect choice tinted leaves, the Old Woman must get samples of lichens, and she herself would bring home spoils of flowers. At noon they sat down to dine. They had rocks for chairs, and the rocks were covered with patches of lichen. The Old Woman covered one gray patch with her hand. Consider," she said, "that to some living creatures this thin crust of vegetation is a great primeval forest. Here are mighty trees, huge rocks, dark defiles, impenetrable jungles; here fierce, ravenous beasts prowl, and weaker ones flee; here life and death battle, and we terrible mortals are only known by creating a night for them with our shadows." "Those animals are too small to be seen," said the Dame. "There are some which the eye discerns," said the Old Woman, removing her hand. "Here is a snow-white spider like a pin's point. Here is a green spider like a pin's head, another striped spider like a grain of sand, another, same size, jet black, a gray spider large as a poppy seed, and a dozen atoms of life, blood-red, and running about frantically." "We are getting too scientific for strollers," said Bobby Shafto; "let us hunt up a spring." "Follow this path," said the Dame: 'Where the purple dieth, And short dry grass under foot is brown, But one green streak at a distance lieth, Green like a ribbon to prank the down." The green ribbon showed a spring; and they found a hollow like a nest, from the top of which leaped two silver jets of water, as if glad to be free, and fell into a moss lined cup. In a few mornings after this, the elfin Old Woman consulted the birds, and they sang about going to Upper Lehigh, which was now the top blossom of their world, and was two thousand feet above the highest tide. Therefore they made haste to get in a queer little car without any ornamentation, which was to carry them nine miles, going steadily up and up all | where you saw the streams run, but could the way. The venturesome car ran about not hear the voice of the water. The cliffs, where it seemed as if only a goat dense woods were in their most spendid could climb; it hung over deep valleys, I autumnal dress; the solid green masses of spruce, pine and fir were set off with white blossoms, and their silken seeds brown and golden beeches, orange-clad chestnuts, and the lofty spires of scarlet maples. Where fire-scathed trunks lifted themselves, red mercury waved her banners in pride over their ruins; and wild grapes climbed to the tops of the walnuts, spotted with gold and brown. "The world," said the Dame, "grows more beautiful as it is lifted nearer the sky." "We are on storied ground," said the historic Old Woman. 66 Along this gorge hastened the troops from Paoli, bearing succor to the lovely and unhappy valley of the Susquehanna. Around this circle. of hills lay the war-path where the merciless warriors of old swept down on fair and fated Wyoming. These were famous hunting grounds of elder days; and as the Indian saw these peaks one by one rise nearer heaven and melt into the sky, he dreamed of happy hunting grounds where deer, and bears, and alas! plenty of scalp-locks were the brave's reward!" "We walk," said Mr. Shafto, when they reached Upper Lehigh, "on ground that is being undermined by coal diggers. Will you go down a mine?" By no means," replied the Old Woman. "Let us cherish romance. If we do not go down we can dream of wonderful chambers and vaulted corridors, and gnomes and genii of the hills at work to light and warm our homes. We can imagine elfin laughter and fantastic guise, and tricksy sprites busy by the light of blazing diamonds for the good of men. If we went down, the gnomes and benevolence and diamonds might suffer change; we should see men with smutty faces and smoking lamps, moiling for so many shillings a day!" "Here all the stones are white and sparkling," said the Dame, admiring the smooth glittering road. "By this conglomerate," remarked Mr. Shafto, "the earth tells where her black diamonds are hidden." The road lay through barrens, where fires had raged a year or two before. Wherever the flames had passed, vegetation had sprung up rapidly to repair damages. Fire-weed held out its crowded filled the air; the dark leaves and red berries of the winter-green wreathed the ground; blueberry bushes were plenty, while here and there were clusters of pink and white blossoms, which had forgotten to open at the proper season, and would now never bring fruit, because of their procrastination. Up from the path on either hand, ran acres of sassafras like tongues of flame; as the mocking-bird apes all notes, the sassafras steals all hues; it is red like the maple, and yellow like the chestnut, and russet like the beech, and purple like the rubus. The road was the wisest and most wonderful of roads, for it led them on pleasantly and tranquilly, without any boasting, and suddenly darting out from an archway of trees, ended in a great overhanging table of rock, with a broad valley steeped in sunshine hundreds of feet below, and range after range of violet hills melting into the distant sky. "This is Paradise!" cried Dame Crumb. "You are right, Dame," said the Old Woman; "this must indeed be the long lost garden of Delight; the perfection of beauty, lying in a jewelled cup of hills." From under the table of rock grew tall pines and firs, of which the tops waved like little shrubs below Bobby's feet. The thick forests, descending the hill, wandered into the valley, the trees seeming to grow smaller and paler as they strayed farther and farther away. Down in the vale ran a small bright stream: "Tinkle, tinkle, it sweetly sung to us. Light was our talk as of fairy bellsFairy wedding bells faintly rung to us, Down in their fortunate parallels. A dappled sky, a world of meadows, Circling above us the black rooks fly Forward, backward; lo, their dark shadows Flit on the blossoming tapestry." There was no need to go further. Here the world had bloomed for them, distilling all its beauty into one bright flower, for that rare day at least creation's crown. Here was their Aiden and pastoral time, and they entered into the newfound joys with unvexed spirits. "It is a pity," said the Dame, when the sun was setting, "that such days as this must have an end. Suppose that this day should stretch on and on, and we should come back to common life no more." "Ah," said Bobby, sedately, "your penny, Dame, would not last forever; the Old Woman's many babies and their guardians would become clamorous; even my silver buckles might tarnish and grow dim. Let us go.' They returned to the little car; it stood forlorn and helpless on the track; there were no mooring ropes cast off; a man simply turned something, and the little car set out on its own responsibility. "What do you call this?" asked Bobby Shafto. "This is gravity," said the conductor. "And how fast will gravity go?" "A mile in two minutes if permitted, but we curb its speed; better to creep around these short curves, than go flying off from the cliff into space." "Very true," said Bobby, "and what is the heaviest grade to a mile?" "A hundred and forty feet," said the conductor, but here he saw his fire was getting low, and he suddenly stopped the little car, took a scuttle and gathered up some fuel from the road side. Presently the car stopped again, and the conductor asked a passenger if he wanted to get off. This directed general attention to a mellow and rubicund young man, who remarked that "it was all the same to him if he went to White Haven," whereupon the accommodating car proceeded on its travels. This mellow young man was eating filberts. He laid the nuts one by one in the back of his mouth, between two of his most reliable molars, and immediately a loud crack announced the destruction of the shells. He did not offer Dame Crumb any filberts, but he beamed at her cheerfully. She thought he winked at her; she would have been terribly angry if she had been sure about it; but she was not sure, so she let it pass. (N. B.-It is very good excursion philosophy, never to be certain of things which ought to enrage you.) The car, thanks to gravity, ran down Day the nine miles of mountain side. light had faded, and they came into a wilderness of tunnels and car tracks, and there they delayed, and rolled a few rods forward, and a few rods backward, in the most tantalizing fashion. "O, dear me, this is dreadfully tedious!" cried Little Dame Crumb. "Have patience," said the mellow young man, "have patience. Job had it, and his train went. I have it also." "But not so much as Job?" suggested the Dame. "O, more, more," said the young man, confidently. "Job never taught such country schools as I have." There was a sudden jar. "Our engine has come to run us into town," said Bobby Shafto. "Don't talk of engines," said the Old Woman," who was a little out of humor, in a severe tone, which nearly annihilated Bobby. "Engines belong to that dreary region of the practical from which we have cut loose. This is our little sister who has but one eye, she climbs the mountains high, high, high; she wades the valleys deep, deep, deep; don't call her an engine, Bobby." Just here the little sister came rushing up, and it being difficult for her to turn in so narrow a place, she resolved to lay hold of them, and run them into town backward. Doing this, her one eye glared indignation and terror upon the doomed Bobby all the way to the depot. No Mother Goose people would be willing to miss seeing the enchanting valley of Wyoming. An afternoon which promised well was chosen, and a noisy car began to carry Bobby and his party up the mountain. Railroads are usually foes of the romantic and picturesque, but it is not possible for man to mar the glorious prospect from this range of hills. The broad fertile vale threaded by a bright river, and thickly set with villages and homes, comes into view again and again, as the road follows the curves of the cliffs. One moment and you think it has passed entirely out of sight; anon, another turn has been made, and the beautiful landscape lies once more in centre, where these beings have their kingdom. "What have you found?" asked Dame Crumb, coming near, and seeing that the Old Woman had got into Wonder Land. "The Genii," replied the Old Woman, "Come with me, I have found Undine," said the Dame, and she led the Old Woman to a window, opposite which a fountain played. The delicious water fairy was there indeed, on the very top of the fountain. It was a little Undine fullest view. Near you gorgeous woodlands and fringes of flowers fitly set the picture; while beyond the valley, hills rise again in green and violet and purple and blue ranges, until the last swelling outline melts into an opal sky. The scene is the very fulness of rest and content; the clustered houses give it the home touch which appeals at once to the heart. Orchards press about the dwellings, white spires point solemn fingers toward heaven; acres of wheat and corn proclaim the abundance of the who had not yet found a soul, and mersummer blessing. One might imaginery and mad were her antics. She danced, that these guardian hills kept want, and and curtsied, and leaped; now she wrapwar, and pestilence forever at bay. ped her soft spray cloak all about her, and bowed low; then she tore it apart and sprung high into the air; then she kissed her hand, and spun round and round and round. She was such a pretty little Undine, that they watched her until Bobby Shafto said it was time to go home. Bobby says he did not get lost in Wilkesbarre; he scorns that imputation; but the Old Woman knows very well that the idiosyncrasies of his course to the depot were such, that it took the united wisdom of two men and a boy to get him to his destination. As they passed along looking on this prospect from their airy height, each wove their own romance. The Dame mused of early times, of Gertrude and her day. Bobby Shafto dwelt rather on the people of the present, idealizing them and their homes. The Old Woman had a wider range of vision; for she beheld not only things tangible, but multitudes of ethereal and so-called fabulous beings, who dwelt between the earth and clouds. She saw them poised on the flower set sod, and going up in shining circles toward the blue dome of the skies-skies fair as the face of Helen, and as false, for despite their guileful promises, they hid the sun, and when Bobby, and the Old Woman, and Little Dame Crumb reached Wilkesbarre, it was raining! Mother Goose people never carry umbrellas nor water-proofs; they are given to gazing on the bright side of things, and do not expect storms. They went through several streets, all of which looked crooked. They forded rivers of black mud. They found a public square, which had a great many angles, and was set sadly askew; after this Bobby piloted them to a hotel. There was a bright fire of coals in a low grate, and before it sat down the Old Woman. Her comrades, the elves, the fire sprites, at once espied her, and nodded cheerfully from behind great red coals. They held out their wee hands full of bright gems, diamonds, and carbuncles, and rubies, and amethysts, which shine by the million, down in the hot earth Once on the cars they were glad it had stormed, for the mountain lay in a bright sunshine; it rained, and was black in the right hand valley; and the valley on the left lay between dark and shine. The earth became a celestial map, the image of every cloud was painted on wood and field, with broad reaches of light between; while on the far off hills the clouds trailed low and rainily, and tall trees had light wreaths of vapor clinging to their tops, like fragments of torn veils. Wilkesbarre," said the Old Woman, when they were at length out of sight of the valley, "Wilkesbarre is a place where it rains." "Not all the time, perhaps," suggested Bobby. "I have no evidence that it does not rain all the time; I went there to see it, and I found it raining," continued the Old Woman. "For all that," said the Dame, "it may shine there sometimes." "That is of no consequence," replied |