e night, and was as tall and large as ever the next day. When we
came here Don Alphonzo had their tree cut down every day, but it always
came up again just the same. At last he was afraid the Indian spirits
would cast a spell over him, too, so he let their elm alone. The Indians
still bury their dead under it, but no one ever sees them arrive. They
come in the night. An elm will always grow there till the two thousand
years for which they have their charm has expired. After that time there
will never be another."

CHAPTER XI.

A fool, a fool!--I met a fool i' the forest.

The first winter which the ladies and little Cora passed on the island,
was unusually severe, but they had expected and prepared for it; and the
winter scene was so novel to them, and fraught with so much beauty, that
they never wearied of it. Besides the constant occupation in their
housekeeping and attending to Cora, and also caring for Louisita, and
providing her with all the comforts they had in their power to take to
her, for she still insisted in living in the Vikings' tomb, which she
never permitted them to enter.

Spring came at last, and with it returned to the island the robins, the
song thrushes, the beautiful golden orioles, and the humming birds, all
of which had gone southward at the beginning of winter. The wood violets
and the trailing arbutus blossomed among the grass. The spruces and
pines put forth their young buds, and the whole island wore a garb of
beauty.

The little family of three, spent much time out of doors, and visited
the beach almost daily, for they all loved the sea, especially little
Cora; and to enhance her happiness was the first desire of both of the
ladies. They frequently wandered around Ralph's grave, and never omitted
adding a stone to the cairn, which they had raised to his memory.
Little Cora with her tiny hands, always placing her own mite to the
pile. As the child grew stronger, they took longer walks, and taught her
from the book of nature as they went along, for Nature's lessons in
geology, and botany, and natural history, lay all around them.

They had by this, brought their lives into the same degree of system and
order, as that in which they had each of them been educated in their
respective homes; the want of which during the first part of their
residence on the island they greatly missed. They now divided their
days, and had regular hours for certain occupations, and they made a
comp