bout; and she has
not as yet taught us to think aloud.

But sometimes, when the air is peculiarly exhilarating, when a distant
mountain grows purple and gold tipped as the sun goes down behind it,
sometimes when we see the wide ocean suddenly, or come upon a bed of
violets, we utter an exclamation as the bird sings: we hardly know we
have spoken.

"Yes, it _is_ delightful," said some one below, replying to the girl's
sentence.

It was Rast, who had come across the plateau unseen, and was now
standing on the old bastion of the fort beneath her. Anne smiled, then
turned as if to descend.

"Wait; I am coming up," said Rast.

"But it is time to go home."

"Apparently it was not time until I came," said the youth, swinging
himself up without the aid of the ladder, and standing by her side.
"What are you looking at? Those steamers?"

"Yes, and the spring, and the air."

"You can not see the air."

"But I can feel it; it is delicious. I wonder, if we should go far away,
Rast, and see tropical skies, slow rivers, great white lilies, and
palms, whether they would seem more beautiful than this?"

"Of course they would; and we are going some day. We are not intending
to stay here on this island all our lives, I hope."

"But it is our home, and I love it. I love this water and these woods, I
love the flash of the light-houses, and the rushing sound the vessels
make sweeping by at night under full sail, close in shore."

"The island is well enough in its way, but there are other places; and
I, for one, mean to see the world," said young Pronando, taking off his
cap, throwing it up, and catching it like a ball.

"Yes, you will see the world," answered Anne; "but I shall stay here.
You must write and tell me all about it."

"Of course," said Rast, sending the cap up twice as high, and catching
it with unerring hand. Then he stopped his play, and said, suddenly,
"Will you care very much when I am gone away?"

"Yes," said Anne; "I shall be very lonely."

"But shall you care?" said the youth, insistently. "You have so little
feeling, Annet; you are always cold."

"I shall be colder still if we stay here any longer," said the girl,
turning to descend. Rast followed her, and they crossed the plateau
together.

"How much shall you care?" he repeated. "You never say things out,
Annet. You are like a stone."

[Illustration: "AND IT ENDED IN THEIR RACING DOWN TOGETHER."]

"Then throw me away," answered the girl, ligh