e weir--all these had a tale to tell him. Sometimes, for days
together, he would hum to himself a few notes that pleased him by their
sweet cadence, and he would string together some simple words to them,
and sing them to himself with gentle content. The song of the reapers on
the upland, or the rude chanting in the little church had a magical
charm for him; and Mistress Alison would hear the boy, in his room
overhead, singing softly to himself for very gladness of heart, like a
little bird of the dawn, or tapping out some tripping beat of time; when
she would wonder and speak to God of what was in her heart.

As Paul grew older--he was now about sixteen--a change came slowly over
his mind; he began to have moods of a silent discontent, a longing for
something far away, a desire of he knew not what. His old dreams began
to fade, though they visited him from time to time; but he began to care
less for the silent beautiful life of the earth, and to take more
thought of men. He had never felt much about himself before; but one
day, lying beside a woodland pool at the feet of the down, he caught a
sight of his own face; and when he smiled at it, it seemed to smile back
at him; he began to wonder what the world was like, and what all the
busy people that lived therein said and thought; he began to wish to
have a friend, that he might tell him what was in his heart--and yet he
knew not what it was that he would say. He began, too, to wonder how
people regarded him--the people who had before been but to him a distant
part of the shows of the world. Once he came in upon Mistress Alison,
who sate talking with a gossip of hers; when he entered, there was a
sudden silence, and a glance passed between the two; and Paul divined
that they had been speaking of himself, and desired to know what they
had said.

One day the old gardener, in a more talkative mood than was his wont,
told him a tale of one who had visited the Wishing Well that lay a few
miles away, and, praying for riches, had found the next day, in digging,
an old urn of pottery, full of ancient coins. Paul was very urgent to
know about the well, and the old man told him that it must be visited at
noonday and alone. That he that would have his wish must throw a gift
into the water, and drink of the well, and then, turning to the sun,
must wish his wish aloud. Paul asked him many more questions, but the
old man would say no more. So Paul determined that he would visit the