."

And whenever she entered the circle of human kind, and appeared among
young or old, the knowledge of the true, the good, and the beautiful
beamed into their hearts. Whether she entered the study of the artist,
or the festive, decorated hall, or the crowded factory, with its
whirring wheels, it seemed as though a sunbeam were stealing in--as if
the sweet string sounded, the flower exhaled its perfume, and a living
dew-drop fell upon the exhausted blood.

[Illustration: THE BLIND GIRL'S MESSENGERS.]

But the evil spirit could not see this and be content. He has more
cunning than ten thousand men, and he found out a way to compass his
end. He betook himself to the marsh, collected little bubbles of the
stagnant water, and passed over them a sevenfold echo of lying words
to give them strength. Then he pounded up paid-for heroic poems and
lying epitaphs, as many as he could get, boiled them in tears that
envy had shed, put upon them rouge he had scraped from faded cheeks,
and of these he composed a maiden, with the aspect and gait of the
blessed blind girl, the angel of thoroughness; and then the Evil One's
plot was in full progress. The world knew not which of the two was the
true one; and, indeed, how should the world know?

"To trust in thyself and in God is best;
His good will be done for ever,"

sung the blind girl, in full faith. She intrusted the four green
leaves from the Tree of the Sun to the winds, as a letter and a
greeting to her brothers, and had full confidence that they would
reach their destination, and that the jewel would be found which
outshines all the glories of the world. From the forehead of humanity
it would gleam even to the castle of her father.

"Even to my father's house," she repeated. "Yes, the place of the
jewel is on earth, and I shall bring more than the promise of it with
me. I feel its glow, it swells more and more in my closed hand. Every
grain of truth, were it ever so fine, which the sharp wind carried up
and whirled towards me, I took up and treasured; I let it be
penetrated by the fragrance of the beautiful, of which there is so
much in the world, even for the blind. I took the sound of the beating
heart engaged in what is good, and added it to the first. All that I
bring is but dust, but still it is the dust of the jewel we seek, and
in plenty. I have my whole hand full of it." And she stretched forth
her hand towards her father. She was soon at home--she had trave