ard over his shoulder as I waved
farewell, entreated me to wander no farther from the shore.

The little spring where they had left us welled up, cold and clear, at
the foot of a tall cypress-tree, and trickled thence in a tiny stream, a
mere thread of crystal, that tangled itself in the low bush and wound
its way helplessly through the level wooded country, as though seeking
for some gentle slope that would lead it to the sea.

The dame rinsed her linen till it fairly shone, and spread it out to dry
in a sunny nook; while I lay prone on the warm earth and stirred up the
damp brown leaves that had drifted into a tiny hollow, and found beneath
them a wee green vine with little white star-flowers that blinked up at
the sun and me. And I dreamed of the new home we would make for
ourselves in this far country, and of the very good and docile wife I
would be to my dear love. Then at last,--because I grew aweary at the
prospect of my very great obedience in the future, and because, too, I
thought it was high time my gallant gentleman came back to ask me how I
did,--up from the ground I started, rousing the dame from a sweet nap.

"Look, Barbara! the linen is dry; the sun is on its westering way, and
the shadows grow longer and longer.--'Tis very strange that Mr. Rivers
and the master have not returned!"

"Mayhap they have clean forgot us and gone back to the ship alone,"
moaned the old woman, rubbing her sleepy eyes and beginning at once to
croak misfortune, after the manner of her class.

Such an idea was past belief and set me smiling. I laid my hollowed
palms behind my ears and listened.

Master Wind, passing through the tree-tops, had set every leaf
a-whispering and nid-nodding to its gossips,--just as the peddler on his
way through the village at home stirs all the women-folk to chattering
about the latest news from the whole countryside. In the thicket beside
us a chorus of feathered singers were all a-twitter, each trying to
outdo his neighbour; but one saucy fellow piped the merriest tune of
all, mingling in a delicious medley the sweetest notes of all the rest.
Of a sudden, as I listened, there was a soft rustle in the undergrowth,
and out from a clump of myrtles bounced a little brown rabbit, who
cocked an astonished eye at me and disappeared again with a series of
soundless leaps and a terrified whisk of his little white tail. Upon
that the laugh in my throat bubbled over; I dropped my hands and turned
to the