as
enjoying the late autumn flowers that the frost had spared. Indigo-blue
bell-flowers and red and white tormentils were still in bloom, while in
the clefts of the rocks she came upon the red wall-pepper and a kind of
yellow ragwort. She had gathered a great bunch of these blossoms when
she had the good fortune to find a clump of bear-berry vines, full of
the ripened fruit hanging in red clusters and set off by the leathery,
dark green leaves, which never fall. The bear-berry is the pride of the
mountain flora, and Blanka was delighted to meet with it.

"Are these berries poisonous?" she asked Aaron, with childish curiosity,
as soon as she rejoined her companions.

He put one of them into his mouth to reassure her; then she had to
follow his example, but immediately made a wry face and declared the
fruit to be very bitter.

"But the berries will do to put in my bouquets for your two brothers who
are coming to meet us," she said, as she seated herself on the sheepskin
to rest a few minutes and to tie up her flowers.

At these words Aaron's eyes filled, but he hastened to reply, with
assumed cheerfulness:

"In Balyika Glen we shall find a still more beautiful species of
bear-berry. It, too, is a kind of arbutus, but of great rarity, and
found nowhere else except in Italy and Ireland. We call it here the
'autumn-spring flower.' The stems are coral-red, the leaves evergreen,
and the blossoms grow in terminal umbels, white and fragrant, late in
the fall, while the berries do not ripen until the following autumn, so
that the beautiful plant bears flowers and fruit at one and the same
time, and thus wears our national colours, the tricolour of Hungary."

"Oh, where does it grow? Is it far from here?" exclaimed Blanka,
eagerly, starting up from her seat. She had lost all feeling of fatigue.

"It is a good distance, dear sister-in-law," replied Aaron. "To the
Torda Gap is a full hour's ride, and thence to Balyika Glen about as
far; and I'm afraid somebody is tired enough already, so that we had
best stay overnight in the mill and not push on until to-morrow
morning."

"No, I am not tired," Blanka asserted. "Let us go on this evening," and
she was ready to remount at once.

"But the horses ought to graze a little longer," objected Aaron, "and
even then we shall fare much better if we walk down the mountain; it
will be easier for us than riding."

With that he went off into the bushes and picked his hat full of
huckl