ngth
from the mutual aid which they afforded.

After several little accidents, such as a torn robe, a lost shoe and
the entanglement of Hannah's hair in a bough, they reached the upper
verge of the forest and were now to pursue a more adventurous course.
The innumerable trunks and heavy foliage of the trees had hitherto
shut in their thoughts, which now shrank affrighted from the region of
wind and cloud and naked rocks and desolate sunshine that rose
immeasurably above them. They gazed back at the obscure wilderness
which they had traversed, and longed to be buried again in its depths
rather than trust themselves to so vast and visible a solitude.

"Shall we go on?" said Matthew, throwing his arm round Hannah's waist
both to protect her and to comfort his heart by drawing her close to
it.

But the little bride, simple as she was, had a woman's love of jewels,
and could not forego the hope of possessing the very brightest in the
world, in spite of the perils with which it must be won.

"Let us climb a little higher," whispered she, yet tremulously, as she
turned her face upward to the lonely sky.

"Come, then," said Matthew, mustering his manly courage and drawing
her along with him; for she became timid again the moment that he grew
bold.

And upward, accordingly, went the pilgrims of the Great Carbuncle, now
treading upon the tops and thickly-interwoven branches of dwarf pines
which by the growth of centuries, though mossy with age, had barely
reached three feet in altitude. Next they came to masses and fragments
of naked rock heaped confusedly together like a cairn reared by giants
in memory of a giant chief. In this bleak realm of upper air nothing
breathed, nothing grew; there was no life but what was concentred in
their two hearts; they had climbed so high that Nature herself seemed
no longer to keep them company. She lingered beneath them within the
verge of the forest-trees, and sent a farewell glance after her
children as they strayed where her own green footprints had never
been. But soon they were to be hidden from her eye. Densely and dark
the mists began to gather below, casting black spots of shadow on the
vast landscape and sailing heavily to one centre, as if the loftiest
mountain-peak had summoned a council of its kindred clouds. Finally
the vapors welded themselves, as it were, into a mass, presenting the
appearance of a pavement over which the wanderers might have trodden,
but where they would