and the dog
came over and licked his face, showing fondness acquired they knew
not where. Mrs. Allen took the boy in her lap and petted him, but
he was afraid--like a wild fawn that has just been captured--and
broke away and took refuge under the bed. A long time she sat by
her bedside with the candle, showing him trinkets and trying to
coax him out. He ceased to cry when she held before him a big,
shiny locket of silver, and soon his little hand came out to grasp
it. Presently she began to reach his confidence with sugar. There
was a moment of silence, then strange words came out of his
hiding-place. "Anah jouhan" was all they could make of them, and
they remembered always that odd combination of sounds. They gave
him food, which he ate with eager haste. Then a moment of silence
and an imperative call for more in some strange tongue. When at
last he came out of his hiding-place, he fled from the woman. This
time he sought refuge between the knees of Allen, where soon his
fear gave way to curiosity, and he began to feel her face and gown.
By and by he fell asleep.

They searched the sleigh and shook out the robe and blanket,
finding only a pair of warm bricks.

A Frenchman worked for the Allens that winter, and the name, Trove,
was of his invention.

And so came Sidney Trove, his mind in strange fetters, travelling
out of the land of mystery, in a winter night, to Brier Dale.

II

The Crystal City and the Traveller

The wind, veering, came bitter cold; the rain hardened to hail; the
clouds, changed to brittle nets of frost, and shaken to shreds by
the rough wind, fell hissing in a scatter of snow. Next morning
when Allen opened his door the wind was gone, the sky clear. Brier
Pond, lately covered with clear ice, lay under a blanket of snow.
He hurried across the pond, his dog following. Near the far shore
was a bare spot on the ice cut by one of the sleigh-runners. Up in
the woods, opposite, was the Moss Trail. Sunlight fell on the
hills above him. He halted, looking up at the tree-tops. Twig,
branch, and trunk glowed with the fire of diamonds through a lacy
necking of hoar frost. Every tree had put on a jacket of ice and
become as a fountain of prismatic hues. Here and there a dead pine
rose like a spire of crystal; domes of deep-coloured glass and
towers of jasper were as the landmarks of a city. Allen climbed
the shore, walking slowly. He could see no track of sleigh or dog
or any