eneath the 'Silent Pine.'

A common exclamation of pleasure succeeded the upward glance; for it
is seldom that a tree is seen to more advantage than that which
immediately attracted every eye. The pine stood on the bank, with its
roots embedded in the earth, a few feet higher than the level of the
lake, but in such a situation as to bring the distance above the
water into the apparent height of the tree. Like all of its kind that
grows in the dense forests of America, its increase, for a thousand
years, had been upward; and it now stood in solitary glory, a
memorial of what the mountains which were yet so rich in vegetation
had really been in their days of nature and pride. For near a hundred
feet above the eye, the even round trunk was branchless, and then
commenced the dark-green masses of foliage, which clung around the
stem like smoke ascending in wreaths. The tall column-like tree had
inclined to wards the light when struggling among its fellows, and it
now so far overhung the lake, that its summit may have been some ten
or fifteen feet without the base. A gentle, graceful curve added to
the effect of this variation from the perpendicular, and infused
enough of the fearful into the grand, to render the picture sublime.
Although there was not a breath of wind on the lake, the currents
were strong enough above the forest to move this lofty object, and it
was just possible to detect a slight, graceful yielding of the very
uppermost boughs to the passing air.

"This pine is ill-named," cried Sir George Templemore, "for it is the
most eloquent tree eye of mine has ever looked on!"

"It is, indeed, eloquent," answered Eve; "one hears it speak even now
of the fierce storms that have whistled round its tops--of the
seasons that have passed since it extricated that verdant cap from
the throng of sisters that grew beneath it, and of all that has
passed on the Otsego, when this limpid lake lay, like a gem embedded
in the forest. When the Conqueror first landed in England, this tree
stood on the spot where it now stands! Here, then, is at last, an
American antiquity!"

"A true and regulated taste, Miss Effingham," said Paul, "has pointed
out to you one of the real charms of the country. Were we to think
less of the artificial, and more of our natural excellencies, we
should render ourselves less liable to criticism."

Eve was never inattentive when Paul spoke; and her colour heightened,
as he paid this compliment to her