above them, the grass
waved vast beneath them, and the sky ringed them in from immensity.
Their forms scarcely disturbed the big outline of nature, their
laughter only whispered against the silence, as ineffectual to disturb
that gigantic serenity as a gnat's wing fluttered against a precipice.

Mary Makebelieve wandered on; a few cows lifted solemnly curious faces
as she passed and swung their heavy heads behind her. Once or twice
half a dozen deer came trotting from beyond the trees, and were
shocked to a halt on seeing her--a moment's gaze, and away like the
wind, bounding in a delicious freedom. Now a butterfly came twisting
on some eccentric journey--ten wing-beats to the left, twenty to the
right, and then back to the left, or, with a sudden twist, returning
on the path which it had already traversed, jerking carelessly through
the sunlight. Across the sky very far up a troop of birds sailed
definitely--they knew where they were going; momently one would detach
itself from the others in a burst of joyous energy and sweep a great
circle and back again to its comrades, and then away, away, away to
the skyline.--Ye swift ones! O, freedom and sweetness! A song falling
from the heavens! A lilt through deep sunshine! Happy wanderers! How
fast ye fly and how bravely--up and up, till the earth has fallen away
and the immeasurable heavens and the deep loneliness of the sunlight
and the silence of great spaces receive you!

Mary Makebelieve came to a tree around which a circular wooden seat
had been placed. Here for a time she sat looking out on the wide
fields. Far away in front the ground rolled down into valleys and up
into little hills, and from the valleys the green heads of trees
emerged, and on the farther hills, in slender, distinct silhouette,
and in great masses, entire trees could be seen. Nearer were single
trees, each with its separate shadow and a stream of sunlight flooding
between; and everywhere the greenery of leaves and of grass and the
gold of myriad buttercups and multitudes of white daisies.

She had been sitting for some time when a shadow came from behind her.
She watched its lengthening and its queer bobbing motion. When it grew
to its greatest length it ceased to move. She felt that some one had
stopped. From the shape of the shadow she knew it was a man, but being
so close she did not like to look. Then a voice spoke. It was a voice
as deep as the rolling of a sea.

"Hello," said the voice; "