the virgin footsteps of early spring. The silver cloudlets overhead moved gently, almost imperceptibly, in their sweet unrest, across the ethereal blue, revealing occasional glimpses of the upper firmament in all its celestial purity and beauty.

How like to the spring of nature the early morn of the life of man! How akin to the new, ecstatic life of hill and dale, and the wild mad joy of beast and bird, to the fresh exuberant feelings of youthful passion, and the exultant tumultuous revelry which holds high carnival in the audience-chambers of the virgin heart, untainted by deceit, impurity, or crime! In our early dreams of honourable ambition, in our high resolves to win a place and name among the great and good, how have these pleasant dreams been sweetened, how have these high resolves been strengthened and matured into practical action, by the grand supporting thought that there was in this great and mighty world at least one heart that beat in unison with ours, around which all our hopes and wishes centred, and for which we would toil, and work, and pray, and suffer, and sacrifice, and endure, if so be we could win the prize, and wear as the jewel of our heart the unfading, priceless gem of a first, unselfish, pure, unchangeable love! Thrice happy those who have realised this consummation of their hopes. Blessed, surely, must be the ripe fruition of pristine affection; the holy, hallowed joy, the sweet, unfading bloom of wedded love!

The distant voices of children now breaking sweetly on the ear reminded me I was nearing the village, and in a few minutes more, on emerging from the wood, the secluded hamlet, with the forester's cottage on the right, and nearest to the bridge. appeared in all its sylvan, quiet beauty. No one was stirring about the cottage, and when I entered the little porch, contrary to my usual practice, I tremblingly knocked for admittance. The door was gently opened by the forester himself, who kindly led the way to the sittingroom with more reserve and greater quietude of manner than his wont. Not anticipating any change, however, my sur

prise and grief were the greater when I beheld Eliza leaning on an easy-couch, wrapped carefully around with the warm covering of the invalid!

When I took her thin white hand in mine, and hurriedly made some incoherent inquiries in regard to her health, I long remembered, and do still remember, how damp and chillycold was the returning pressure of silent welcome. Yet the bloom on her cheek was so blushingly bright, and the lustre of her eye so brilliant and unusually clear, and her voice so strong in its silvery sweetness, that it was difficult for me to believe that she was otherwise than in perfect health. Alas! the very symptoms which to me appeared so indicative of health and hope spoke to the more experienced as only foreshadowing a time of suffering and an early grave!

"You did not expect to see me ill on your return,” Eliza softly said at last; "but you have been so long away-at least I have thought the time long-that you must expect to see changes of some kind or another, and I daresay you have found them where you least expected them."

"But tell me, Eliza," I doubtingly rejoined, "if you are really ill. To my eye, you look as healthful as when I saw you two long years ago."

"Do not deceive yourself," she solemnly replied, "if I were not ill, I would not be lying here;" and then, as if regretting what she had said, she continued in a more cheerful tone"The spring has again returned, the time of the singing of the birds has come, I feel my strength returning, and in a short time I trust to be able to be abroad again among the scenes I love so well. I have just been reading in the Revelation of the new heavens and the new earth; of the holy city, the new Jerusalem. Will you read a little to me of these heavenly scenes, for, notwithstanding my desire to live, I begin to think I am gradually becoming more akin to heaven than earth?"

Wondering at the style and fervour of her language, I mechanically took the Bible she had presented to me, and

read as I had never read before, of the pure river of the water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb; of the great city, the holy Jerusalem descending out of heaven from God; of the great multitude that no man could number, of all nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues; and of the angels that stood round about the throne, and of the elders who answered, saying"These are they which came out of great tribulation, and have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb."

When I had finished, Eliza regretfully whispered

"I fain now would rest"-then extending her hand to bid me adieu, she warmly, yet enquiringly continued-" You will come to see me soon again?"

“I will, Eliza, very soon," I replied, and bade her for the time an affectionate adieu.

Her sorrowful mother and the other members of the family had all this time been in the other room, but as I was departing Mrs Wood followed me to the porch, kindly asking me to come soon again to see her daughter. In answer to my inquiries, she informed me that Eliza had first complained of illness in the autumn of the previous year, and that during the succeeding winter she had been closely confined to her room, and, although she did not complain of much pain, she was apprehensive of a fatal issue to her continued illness. My heart was too full to say much, but what I did say seemed hopeful and reassuring, for the fond mother faintly smiled through her blinding tears, and while expressing her gratitude for my good wishes, most fervently prayed they might in God's good time be happily realised.

During the spring I was a frequent visitor at the forester's cottage, and on every occasion, while all others saw too plainly that Eliza was slowly losing ground, I confidently imagined she was as surely gaining strength. In one respect, however, I could not but mark a great and decided change. Her style of conversation had gradually become more elevated

and refined; her language, in strength and beauty of expression, warmth and fervour of devotional feeling, partaking more of heaven than of earth, and encompassing her ever, to me at least, with an ethereal halo of celestial glory.

It was now summer, and as I leisurely pursued my way to the village by the side of the winding burn, listening gratefully to its lapping, silver sound, I thought the burden of its evening song was health and peace to the forester's daughter. Catching up the joyous theme, the jubilant birds among the spreading boughs in the woodland beyond exultingly blent their melodious notes in a full diapason of triumphant song. What a beauteous, lovely, delicious month is "leafy June!" There is in it such a prodigal effulgence of luxuriant beauty, such life, and hope, and joy; such gorgeous broadcast of fair and beautiful colours, such luscious fragrance of ambrosial sweets, such hallowed combinations of melodious sounds! The umbrageous oak and graceful ash have leafed themselves at last in green; the heather hath assumed its purple robe, and the wild rose its rich vermillion blush of virgin beauty; the briar and hawthorn scent the evening gale, and the finch and linnet sing together on the topmost boughs, the merle and thrush answering each other lovingly in the den. Then there is such ever-changing variety of light and shade, such echoing bursts of rural sounds, such joyous shouts of happy children in the glens, such plaintive bleatings from motherless lambs on the hills, such cawing of rooks over their new-fledged young, such dreamy music sweet of distant village bells, that the heart feels all aglow in a wild transport of voluptuous joy, and the soul is stirred to its inmost depths with the deep emotions of holy rapture, gushing forth in the joyous strains of gratitude and love.

As I neared the forester's cottage, the "Defiance" coach, with its splendid team of spotted greys, and driven by its aristocratic owner, Mr Barclay of Ury, dashed at a rattling pace along the bridge on its way to Aberdeen, the merry sounds of the bugle re-echoing through the woods in unison

with man's expanding heart, and Nature's song of universal joy.

As if to complete the picture of general happiness without, I found Eliza on this summer evening looking very much better, and altogether more cheerful and happy than I had seen her since my return. Reclining on her couch, arrayed in spotless white, her countenance lighted up by the reflection of some inward joy, and her long bright tresses bedropt with spangled gold from the dazzling rays of the setting sun, and gently stirred by the evening breeze which came in softly at the open window, I thought that surely no human being could look more saint-like, more spiritually lovely, more divinely beautiful! Around the little window which looked out to the churchyard and the church the fragrant honeysuckle entwined its beautiful blossoms, while in at the open casement to the west the roses, nodding with the breeze, peeped in like blushing maidens sly, not to be caught yet, but coquettely to tease awhile, so timid were they and so shy.

"You see that wooded height in the churchyard above St Fergus' Well?" said Eliza softly, now breaking the sweet silence of the hour. "I should wish to be buried there when I die-nay, startle not; we must all die, and I feel my time has nearly come. Often in your long absences have I wandered by our favourite pathways o'er the Hunter Hill, but oftener I lingered in the twilight eves-I cannot tell how it was-by lone St Fergus' Well, and in the quiet secluded buryingground above and around that romantic spot. You will come sometimes and visit my last resting-place-will you not?"

"Eliza," I replied, "such thoughts would break my

heart

"Listen," said she, interruptingly, and without noticing my remark. "When I am dying-and I feel assured I will die in calmness and in peace-I would wish to enter heaven with the songs of earth vibrating in my ear, thus sweetly carrying me