more  and  more  to  the  west,  and  then  still  onwards  towards
the  icy  north,  the  land  of  the  unsetting  sun  and  the  everlast-
ing snow.  She  was  never  tired  of  walking  up  and  down  the
garden  paths,  or  of  wandering  in  the  woods,  or  rambling  along
the  banks  of  the  meandering  brooklet  that  wound  its  silvery-
way  through  the  green  lowlands  about  Chilcombe,  soon  ming-
ling its  pure  wavelets  with  a  river  at  no  great  distance,  and  so
passing  onwards  to  the  sea.  She  loved  to  linger  in  these
pleasant  haunts,  revelling  in  each  fresh  beauty  as  it  unfolded
itself  in  scaly  bulb  or  tender  bract,  or  delicate  young  leaf,  or
sweet  pale  floweret ;  rejoicing  in  the  voice  of  birds,  in  the  balmy
breezes,  in  the  soft  warm  airs  breathing  from  the  south,  and
in  the  brilliant  April  skies,  now  one  glorious  dome  of  stainless
azure,  now  flecked  with  fleecy  clouds,  and  now  shadowed  with
piled  up  nimbus  masses  floating  inland  from  the  sea,  pouring
4own  on  the  grateful  earth  the  warm  revivifying  showers  of
the  gracious  spring-tide.  Sunshine  and  rain,  cloud  and  rain-
bow, wavy  hills  and  emerald  smiling  dales,  morning  and
evening — all  brought  to  Esther  their  own  peculiar  joy,  ever
blending,  ever  changing,  ever  filling  her  heart  with  a  sense  of
pure  unmingled  happiness,  and  with  innocent  blisses  such  as
she  never  knew  again  in.  after  days,  when  her  life  was  made
up  of  passionate  loves  and  weary  longings,  and  sorrows  that
seemed  at  times  too  heavy  to  be  borne.
