their labors amid the trees, who
are aware that the silent, stealthy eyes are watching them, and work
on without fear. The prince had taught the children fearlessness, or,
perhaps, it was in their blood, and needed no education. He had taught
them to look upon the beasts of the forests not as enemies, but as
quiet, watching friends.

Wanda went alone whithersoever she listed, without so much as turning
her head to look over her shoulder. The pine-woods were hers; the
peasants were her serfs in spirit, if not in deed. Here, at all events,
the Bukatys were free to come and go. In cities they were watched, their
footsteps dogged by human wolves.

There are few paths through the great forests of Poland, of Posen, and
of Silesia, and what there are, are usually cut straight and at right
angles to each other. There was a path just wide enough to give passage
to the narrow timber carts from the farm direct to the woodman's
cottage, and so flat is the face of the earth that the distant trees are
like the masts of ships half-hidden by the curve of the world. It seems
as if one could walk on and on forever, or drop from hunger and fatigue
and lie unheeded for years in some forgotten corner. In the better-kept
forests the paths are staked and numbered, or else it would be
impossible to know the way amid such millions of trees--all alike, all
of the same height. But the prince was too poor to vie with the wealthy
land-owners of Silesia, and his forests were ill-kept.

In places the trees had fallen across the original path, and the few
passers-by had made a new path to one side or the other. Sometimes a
tree had grown outward towards the light and air, almost bridging the
open space.

Wanda could not, therefore, see very far in front or behind, and was
taken by surprise by the thud of a horse's feet on the beaten snow
behind her. She turned, thinking it was her father, who for some reason
had returned home, and, learning whither she had gone, had followed
her. But it was not the prince. It was Cartoner. Before she had quite
realized that it was he, he was on his feet leading his horse towards
her.

She paused and looked at him, half startled; then, with a curt,
inarticulate cry of joy she hurried towards him. Thus were given to them
a few of those brief moments of complete happiness which are sometimes
vouchsafed to human beings. Which must assuredly be moments stolen from
heaven; for angels are so chary with them, giving the