It cast a sombre and many of the compa

verted to the melancholy fact. shade over the whole scene, ny were moved to tears. I have witnessed gayer funerals.

"After the ceremony, I spoke to Cousin M., and we parted, probably for the last time on earth. O, may I meet her where they 'neither marry nor are given in marriage!'

"On our return we called at Mr. C.'s. As I communed with the beautiful clay,' strown with snowdrops and evergreens, I could not help exclaiming, 'Farewell, dear friend! thou art a bride in heaven!'

'I know thou art gone to the place of thy rest,
Then why should my soul be so sad?

I know thou art gone where the weary are blest,
And the mourner looks up and is glad―

Where Love hath left off, in the land of his birth,
All the stains he had gathered in this;

And Hope, the sweet singer that gladdened the earth,
Lies asleep on the bosom of Bliss!""

The following was penned on her return from a sojourn of several weeks in Pennsylvania:

"I came home with health greatly improved, and spirits as wild and free as the gazelle upon the mountains. I should like to have remained there all the summer, just for the invigorating air and the inspiring scenery. All the while I was gone,

'I spake in numbers, for the numbers came.'

And what wonder? for we traveled whole days on the banks of the beautiful Susquehanna, made

classic by the songs of Sigourney and Campbell, and rendered sacred by the effusion of patriotic blood. We passed over the battle ground of Sulli

van,

• Where, louder than the bolts of heaven,
Far flashed the red artillery;'

and we gazed up at the giant hills which overlooked the carnage, and caught the groan of the soldier, yielding up his life for his country. Verily, I felt that such a scene, with its sublime associations, might

'Create warriors, and make women fight!'

"I think Nature must have been in a frolic, when she moulded the mountains and scooped out the ravines of Pennsylvania. Everything is wild, romantic, and wondrously fascinating. Beauty and sublimity have met together; the touching and the terrific have kissed each other. The whole country abounds with living streams and romantic cascades, bursting from the bosom of the mountains, fresh as the fountain of Hagar, inspiring as the waters of Helicon. Villages appear to have sprung up by magic, where it would seem impracticable to build with human hands. In many places, the forest comes down to the very door-stone; or the rude precipice, several hundred feet high, overhangs the roof of the cottage. Mills and factories are wedged into the chasms of the rocks, as if half swallowed by an earthquake; or hung upon the sides of the

hills, as if held there by magic, more than a law of nature. In H., the base of one building looks down into the chimneys of another; and over the declivity dashes a sparkling stream, like a sheet of silver, spangled with gems and gold. I never saw a more impressive and fascinating spectacle than that presented, one sunny morning, by a conical mountain, which lifted itself far above its fellows, like a monarch; with a gorgeous prismatic cloud, like a jeweled tiara, encircling its brow. The next night we had a scene of a very different sort, a storm among the mountains. The rain poured down in cataracts; the lightning seemed ready to melt the rocks, and set the hills on fire; while

'Far along,

From peak to peak, the rattling crags among,
Leaped the live thunder!'

Perhaps the extensive mineral deposits in the vicinity have some influence in heightening the terrible sublimity of such a phenomenon."

CHAPTER IX.

NEW LEAF IN THE BOOK OF LIFE.

"But happy they, the happiest of their kind,
Whom gentle stars unite, and in one fate,
Their hearts, their fortunes, and their beings, blend!"
Thompson.

Old

"I live in a kind of spiritualized existence. things are passed away; all things are become new. Time moves on in a path of golden light. Earth is an Elysium. The past is composed of pleasant memories; and the future, of fairy hopes.

"You will call me poetic, romantic, enthusiastic, Je ne sais quoi. Well, so be it. I love to look upon the bright side of life. And why not? I have been reared among green hills and vocal groves; and brooks and breezes, birds and blossoms, have been my companions from the cradle. To me, coming events have never cast any of their shadows before; or if they have, they have been only shadows of the sun. I will not be unhappy. If Egypt is all darkness, Isreal shall have light in his dwellings. If we build castles on the airy hills of the future, we might as well have beautiful creations while we can. Reality always brings with it enough of deformity. Who would not rather contemplate the jeweled morning than a gathering night of storms!

"I do not expect to find earth adorned with perpetual spring, and life a long holiday dance through fields of flowers. In truth, I would not have it so. As Mrs. Jameson says, 'We need the lightning and the thunder, as well as the sunshine and the dew.' We need something to break up the dull monotony of life, to awaken our slumbering energies, to bring out the better qualities of our nature, to prepare us for sympathizing with those who suffer, and teach us the value of victory by its cost. There could be no virtue without vicissitude, no triumph without trial. If I knew my future were to be a continual tempest, I think I would go forward in the path upon which I have entered, and seek to direct the blast, tame the lightning, and melodize the thunder! But Hope whispers of better things."

This is an excerpt from a letter. Its allusions are of easy interpretation. Another month terminates that part of Adaline's history which transpired at the Grove. Henceforth the current of her life flows in a new channel. On the ninth day of September, 1845, she identifies her earthly interests with those of the writer. The next day she bids adieu to friends and home, and sets out for the city of New York. Speaking of the separation, she says:

"There was a thistle twined with the flower; and as I plucked the latter, the former entered into my hand; but there was no venom in the wound, and it soon healed."