and mournful expression, and she vowed
in her heart that no blight should come over her youthful prospects,
if it were in her power to prevent it.

Ere long, the necessary preparations were completed, and the two bade
a final adieu to the lonely dwelling, and passed slowly along the road
toward the mansion of Widow White.

PART II.

"Parent! who with speechless feeling,
O'er thy cradled treasure bent,
Found each year new charms revealing,
Yet thy wealth of love unspent;
Hast thou seen that blossom blighted
By a drear, untimely frost?
All thy labor unrequited?
Every glorious promise lost!"

Time, at whose touch the monument of a thousand ages crumbles to dust;
at whose embrace empires totter to ruin, and at whose breath cities
rise and sink like bursting bubbles in a pool, rolled on his car of
wonderful mutations.

Ten years--ten short, rapid years had lapsed away into the infinitude
of the past, and mighty changes had marked their progress. The wave of
population, like the ocean at its flood, had gradually advanced over
the land, and many new habitations sent up their curling smoke within
sight of the old homestead of Widow White. The mansion-house itself
had changed but little, though one of the tall maples had been cut
away from the massive stone chimney at the south end of the building,
and the moss had crept over the sloping roof in spots, giving a quaint
richness of appearance to the time-honored shingles. The huge old mill
below the dam had grown a little more picturesque with the lapse of
years; but it was fast going to decay, for its owner was long since
dead, and there being some still pending lawsuit between the heirs
concerning this piece of property, no repairs had been made, or even
any attention paid to its mouldering condition; and for several
twelvemonths it had ceased to send up its daily medley of pleasant
sounds. The old wooden bridge that spanned the river where it swept
across the mouth of the valley, seemed as it ever did, save that rude
hands had leveled the magnificent clump of trees that had embowered
one end, and enveloped it, during half the day, in a mass of dense
shadows, which always slept about this old fabric, and darkened the
waters like heaps of black drapery. The scenery around was still as
magnificent and entrancing as ever, though, immediately surrounding
the dwelling of Widow White, it had undergone a very material change.
The ad