s the same little
girl I had seen already. She still wore white, and her tangled curls
floated shining around her head. She seemed to be smiling, and slightly
shook her head at us.

"What does it mean, Jack?" I whispered, slipping out of the hammock.

"How did she get there? Come!" said he, and we walked hastily towards
the little thing, who again shook her head. Just at this moment another
cloud obscured the moon for a few seconds, and though in the uncertain
twilight I fancied I still saw her, yet when the cloud passed she was
not to be found.

III.--PERDITA

Aunt Agnes certainly did look as though she needed rest. She seemed very
frail, and the color had entirely left her face. But her curling hair
was as golden as ever, and her figure as girlish and graceful. She
kissed me tenderly, and kept my hand in hers as she wandered over the
house and took long looks across the prairie.

"Isn't it beautiful?" she asked, softly. "Just the place to be happy
in! I've always had a strange fancy that I should be happy here again
some day, and now I feel as though that day had almost come. You are
happy, aren't you, dear?"

I looked at Jack, and felt the tears coming to my eyes. "Yes, I am
happy. I did not know one could be so happy," I answered, after a
moment.

Aunt Agnes smiled her sweet smile and kissed me again. "God bless you
and your Jack! You almost make me feel young again."

"As though you could possibly feel anything else," I retorted, laughing.
"You little humbug, to pretend you are old!" and slipping my arm round
her waist, for we had always been dear friends, I walked off to chat
with her in her room.

We took a ride that afternoon, for Aunt Agnes wanted another gallop over
that glorious prairie. The exercise and the perfect afternoon brought
back the color to her cheeks.

"I think I shall be much better to-morrow," she observed, as we trotted
home. "What a country this is, and what horses!" slipping her hand down
her mount's glossy neck. "I did right to come back here. I do not
believe I will go away again." And she smiled on Jack and me, who
laughed, and said she would find it a difficult thing to attempt.

We all three came out on the veranda to see the sunset. It was always a
glorious sight, but this evening it was more than usually magnificent.
Immense rays of pale blue and pink spread over the sky, and the clouds,
which stretched in horizontal masses, glowed rose and golden. The whole
sky was lu