chill, but the night was
now temperate; out of the recesses of the wood there came mild airs as
from a deep and peaceful breathing; and the dew was heavy on the grass
and the tight-shut daisies. This was the girl's first night under the
naked heaven; and now that her fears were overpast, she was touched to
the soul by its serene amenity and peace. Kindly the host of heaven
blinked down upon that wandering Princess; and the honest brook had no
words but to encourage her.

At last she began to be aware of a wonderful revolution, compared to
which the fire of Mittwalden Palace was but the crack and flash of a
percussion-cap. The countenance with which the pines regarded her began
insensibly to change; the grass too, short as it was, and the whole
winding staircase of the brook's course, began to wear a solemn freshness
of appearance. And this slow transfiguration reached her heart, and
played upon it, and transpierced it with a serious thrill. She looked
all about; the whole face of nature looked back, brimful of meaning,
finger on lip, leaking its glad secret. She looked up. Heaven was
almost emptied of stars. Such as still lingered shone with a changed and
waning brightness, and began to faint in their stations. And the colour
of the sky itself was the most wonderful; for the rich blue of the night
had now melted and softened and brightened; and there had succeeded in
its place a hue that has no name, and that is never seen but as the
herald of morning. 'O!' she cried, joy catching at her voice, 'O! it is
the dawn!'

In a breath she passed over the brook, and looped up her skirts and
fairly ran in the dim alleys. As she ran, her ears were aware of many
pipings, more beautiful than music; in the small dish-shaped houses in
the fork of giant arms, where they had lain all night, lover by lover,
warmly pressed, the bright-eyed, big-hearted singers began to awaken for
the day. Her heart melted and flowed forth to them in kindness. And
they, from their small and high perches in the clerestories of the wood
cathedral, peered down sidelong at the ragged Princess as she flitted
below them on the carpet of the moss and tassel.

Soon she had struggled to a certain hill-top, and saw far before her the
silent inflooding of the day. Out of the East it welled and whitened;
the darkness trembled into light; and the stars were extinguished like
the street-lamps of a human city. The whiteness brightened into silver,
the