much entreaty on the part of his mistress
condescended to hold out his fat paw for me
to shake, showing his teeth wickedly all the
while, as if he would like to bite me, if she
only was not there; and I had found the
way to her heart by succeeding, after a long
and patient effort, in rescuing from the well
the line and pail with which she had been
trying to draw water before I arrived. Then,
seeing that I looked heated and tired, she
insisted upon my coming into the cottage to
have some of Aunt's currant wine, while
I rested. I was only too glad to see her
abode, and followed without any hesitation.

I must own that I have tasted better and
sweeter wine than that which had been
spoiling for two months in the damp cellar
at Gan-Eden; but I should have taken
arsenic cheerfully, if her small hands had
mixed the draught. I had seen her once or
twice before in the park at Woodstock; had
asked her name, and heard it, casually; and
had afterwards heard that her aunt had
taken this place to please her, and that they
were living entirely by themselves in their
romantic solitude, with the exception of an
old family servant who came with them from
the city, and the uncouth dog, who was the
prime pet and favourite of Lucy. More than
this I had not sought to hear; and Gan-Eden
might have been located in the moon for
aught I knew. Now that I had stumbled
upon it, however, I looked around with no
small degree of admiration, as Lucy did the
honours of the two rooms to which I was
admitted.

It was a little bower of a place, perched
upon the banks of that same merry brook
which had so beguiled me, and with its
windows facing the south and the west. I do not
know if the sun was coaxed into doing double
duty there, or not, but I am sure I never saw
rooms so full of his golden light before. Every
door and window was always left open of a
pleasant day; and through the hop-vines and
the honeysuckles came the warm and
perfumed air, the song of birds, the lowing of
cattle, and the busy hum of bees, till the rooms
seemed all alive with light and sound. It
was by no means an uncommon thing to see
a swallow dart through from one window to
the other, and a frisky little squirrel crept
into the kitchen each morning, and chirped
saucily for his breakfast. By-and-by he
brought his family with him; and I found
Lucy, one morning, seated on the floor,
scarcely daring to draw her breath, while the
pretty creatures nibbled away, close beside
her, at the crumbs she had scattered for
them. He love for pets was not her least
charm in my eyes. To be sure, when I found
her, one day, with a spoon and pitcher, just
outside the gate, trying to persuade a freckled
ribbon-snake, who opened his brilliant eyes,
and displayed his thread-like tongue in scorn,
to drink the milk she poured for him in little
grassy hollows along the road, I did object;
but I tolerated her spiders and flies, and
bugs and beetles, and dogs and cats, and even
mice, because she had them under her
immediate protection.

It was my first day at Gan-Eden; but ah!
it was not my last. Many a sunshiny afternoon
was spent in the little parlour, with its
wreath-framed pictures, its flowers of every
hue, its vine-shaded windows, and sloping
terraced door. I read to Lucy's aunt, but I
looked at Lucy, and made strange blunders
with my reading. I walked over the hills,
and traced out the spring of the dancing
brook; and the little garden-hat was always
by my side, reaching up to my heart, and no
farther, when its owner stood beside me with
her hands full ot flowers and mosses, chattering
as fast as her tongue could run, about her
treasures. She treated me much as she did
Tiger; and I was only too glad to be his
fellow-slave. Yet I am sure the frank child
never dreamed how dear she was growing to
me. To her I was only "James," or "Brother
James"— only a grave and serious man, too
old, even then, to be more than a protector
and a confidential friend; but not, alas for it,!
too old to love her, and that with a strength
and tenderness a young man could never
have felt. My staid manners made me seem
even older than I really was; and her aunt
entrusted her to me, in all our excursions, as
complacently as if I had been made of iron,
instead of bearing about a living, beating
heart, within my breast.

O, the golden days of that happy summer
fled too quickly! Lucy met me, one afternoon,
at the gate, with as sad a face aa she could
wear.

"We are going!" she sighed. "Aunt
says it is time to go back to the city; and so
we leave Gan-Eden to-day; spend a few days
in town, and then return to noisy New
York. I am sure, if it was not for some we
shall meet there, I should never want to see
the place again."

It would have been well for me if I had,
attended more to what she had just said;
but the thought of her going away from the
only place on earth that seemed fit for her,
swallowed up everything else.

"I should like to visit the old places with
you to-day, Lucy."

"Come in, then, and we will go, while the
servant is packing the furniture."

The trees had just begun to put on their
glorious autumn colours, and banners of
red, purple, gold, crimson, russet,
pale-yellow, green and brown, were flung out
on every side. The September sunshine was
yet warm in the middle of the day: and the
smell of the beeches and the rustle of the
dead leaves under foot— I remember them all,
as if it were but yesterday! But when the
light began to fade, and we turned towards
home, I looked back at the lovely scene, and
all was bare and grey, and perfectly desolate.
Even so has my life been, Lucy!