way.

"Over the Sun's hill nobody went willingly alone, either by day or by
night; for the tale ran, that to many persons wondrous things had
happened. Some had even caught, they said, their death-sickness there.
True it is, any more definite report was not easily obtained. Only so
much had Maud heard from her mother, that the GOOD PEOPLE were said, a
very, very long time ago, to have vanished into the green hill; just
when, in all the places around, so many churches had sprung up, and the
sound of bells rang over mountain and wood. These reports
notwithstanding, Maud, unconscious of evil, took her daily walk over the
Sun's hill, where indeed no one ever encountered her; so that the
splendid landscape looked often desolate and awful in the hot midday's
glow.{N} For this reason it was always a great relief to her, when, from
the top of the steep hill, she saw Albert ascending towards her. She
then felt herself more secure, and went with better spirits forward. It
was near Whitsuntide--the father sickly and more peevish than ever, and
work bringing in no supply; for provisions had risen fearfully in price
in consequence of the previous unusually hard winter. Now, as often as
Maud brought the dinner to her father, he complained bitterly, and
reproached her harshly for her folly; so that the poor child was almost
heartbroken, pined, and led a melancholy life.

"She most deeply felt her trouble, when at noon she took her lonely
journey along the desolate path that led to the quarry. Then she often
shed the bitterest tears, and prayed to God to show her an outlet, and
to have pity on their poverty.

"One day--it was just a week to Whitsun-eve--it happened that as she
went upon her way, silently and in sorrow, and in vain looked for the
beloved figure of Albert, she suddenly heard such a marvellously clear
sound of a bell that she stood still to hearken. It was upon the mid
summit of the Sun's hill; the air perfectly calm, and around, far and
near, not a creature to be seen. From the distant hamlet in the valley
clinked only the sharp tones of the whetting scythe. Maud believed that
she had had a ringing in her ears, and walked on. The singular sound was
repeated, resembling the tone exactly of a small silver bell.

"'How strange it is!' said the maiden to herself, casting her eyes upon
the ground; and in the soft moss, right at her feet, she perceived
something glistening like a fragment of blue glass. She stooped and
pic