w opening in the woods, a considerable
distance back from them. It was supposed that in endeavoring to find
a passage through, or around the fallen timber, she had lost her way.
Obviously, if she went back towards the old road, which was a broad
opening through the woods, she would in no event cross it, and must
be somewhere within the forest, east of it, and between the State
road and the one which led from it to Coe's. Through these woods, with
flashing torch and gleaming lantern, with shout and loud halloa, the
Judge and his now numerous party swept. As often as a dry tree or
combustible matter was found, it was set on fire, there being no
danger of burning over the forest, wet with the rains of Spring.

This forest covered hundreds of acres, traversed by streams and
gullies, and rocky precipices, rendered difficult of passage by fallen
trees, thickets, twining vines and briers.

The weather had been intensely hot for the season, ominously so, for
the last two days, and on this day, the sun, after hanging like a
fiery ball in the thickening heavens, disappeared at mid-afternoon,
in the dark mass of vapor that gathered in the lower atmosphere. The
night came on early, with a black darkness, and while there was no
wind, there was a low, humming moan in the air, as if to warn
of coming tempest, and the atmosphere was already chill with the
approaching change.

CHAPTER XXVII.

THE BABES IN THE WOODS.

"There, Orville, here are our fields. I am almost home; now hurry back.
It is late. I am obliged to you." They had reached the opening, and
the young man turned back, and the young girl tripped lightly and
carelessly on; not to find the fence, as she expected, but an expanse
of fallen timber, huge trunks, immense jams of tree-tops, and numerous
piles of brush, under which the path was hidden. As she looked over
and across, in the gloomy twilight, trees seemed to stand thick and
high on the other side. Julia at once concluded that they had taken
a wrong path; and she thought that she remembered to have seen
one, which she and Barton passed, on the memorable night of their
adventure; and without attempting to traverse the chopping, or go
around it, she turned and hurried back to the old road. As she went,
she thought of what had then happened, and how pleasant it would be if
he were with her, and how bad it had all been since that time.

When she got back to the old road, it seemed very strange, and as
if it h