nd him.
Intoxicated with rapture, yet conscious of every impression, he swam
gently down the glittering stream. A sweeter slumber now overcame him.
He dreamed of many strange events, and a new vision appeared to him. He
dreamed that he was sitting on the soft turf by the margin of a
fountain, whose waters flowed into the air, and seemed to vanish in it.
Dark blue rocks with various colored veins rose in the distance. The
daylight around him was milder and clearer than usual; the sky was of a
sombre blue, and free from clouds. But what most attracted his notice,
was a tall, light-blue flower, which stood nearest the fountain, and
touched it with its broad, glossy leaves. Around it grew numberless
flowers of varied hue, filling the air with the richest perfume. But he
saw the blue flower alone, and gazed long upon it with inexpressible
tenderness. He at length was about to approach it, when it began to
move, and change its form. The leaves increased their beauty, adorning
the growing stem. The flower bended towards him, and revealed among its
leaves a blue, outspread collar, within which hovered a tender face.
His delightful astonishment was increasing with this singular change,
when suddenly his mother's voice awoke him, and he found himself in his
parents' room, already gilded by the morning sun. He was too happy to
be angry at the sudden disturbance of his sleep. He bade his mother a
kind good morning, and returned her hearty embrace.

"You sleeper," said his father, "how long have I been sitting here
filing? I have not dared to do any hammering on your account. Your
mother would let her dear son sleep. I have been obliged to wait for my
breakfast too. You have done wisely in choosing to become one of the
learned, for whom we wake and work. But a real, thorough student, as I
have been told, is obliged to spend his nights in studying the works of
our wise forefathers."

"Dear father," said Henry, "let not my long sleep make you angry with
me, for you are not accustomed to be so. I fell asleep late, and have
been much disturbed by dreams. The last, however, was pleasant, and one
which I shall not soon forget, and which seems to me to have been
something more than a mere dream."

"Dear Henry," said his mother, "you have certainly been lying on your
back, or else your thoughts were wandering at evening prayers. Come,
eat your breakfast, and cheer up."

Henry's mother went out. His father worked on industriously, and sa