Page 564 - Child's own book

She had boon but a short time Jo the wood when night came
on; and having walked a long way, she laid down on the softmoss,
said her prayers.,and leaned her head against the stump of a tree,
ft was perfectly {juiet all around, the air was mild, and
hundreds of glow-worms lit up the surrounding grass and
moss like green fire ; and if she touehed a t*vig eveT so lightly,
the brilliant insects showered down like so many falling stars*
All night she dreamed of ht?r brothers. She thought they
were playing together as iti childhood, and were writing with
the diamond pencils on the gold slates, and looking at the
prints in the hook that had cost half the kingdom. Only,
instead of making sums on the slates, as heretofore, they wrote
down the valiant deeds they h;id achieved, and all they had
done and seen ; and in the print-l>ook everything was living—
the birds were singing, and the figures were walking out of
the book, and speaking to Eli^e and her brothers. But the
moment the latter turned over the leaves, the figures jumped
back into their places, that there might be no disorder.
The sun was already high in the heavens, when she woke.
Not that she could see the sun, for the lofty trees were arching
over her head, hut its beams were playing here and there, like
the fluttering of a gold gauze scarf; and there came a sweet
fragrance from the woods, and the birds almost perched on her
shoulders. She heard the rippling of water, which proceeded
from several Urge streams that fell into a lake* that had a most
beautiful sandy bed* Thick bushes grew round the Inke, but
tlie deer had made a large opening at one spot, through which
Elise was enabled to reach the water. Its surface was so dear,
that when tlie wind did not ruffle the branches and bushes, one
might have fancied they had been painted on the bottom of the
lake, so plainly was every leaf reflected, whether it stood in the
sunshine or the shade.