then," said Mini to his heart.

* * * * *

Birds were not stirring when Mini stepped from the dark cabin into
gray dawn, with firm resolve to join Angelique on the summit. The
Ottawa, with whose flow he went toward Rigaud, was solemnly shrouded
in motionless mist, which began to roll slowly during the first hour
of his journey. Lifting, drifting, clinging, ever thinner and more
pervaded by sunlight, it was drawn away so that the unruffled flood
reflected a sky all blue when he had been two hours on the road. But
Mini took no note of the river's beauty. His eyes were fixed on the
cloudy hill-top, beyond which the sun was climbing. As yet he could
see nothing of the cross, nor of his vision; yet the world had never
seemed so glad, nor his heart so light with joy. _Habitants_, in
their rattling _caleches_, were amazed by the glow in the face of a
boy so ragged and forlorn. Some told afterward how they had half
doubted the reality of his rags; for might not one, if very pure at
heart, have been privileged to see such garments of apparent meanness
change to raiment of angelic texture? Such things had been, it was
said, and certainly the boy's face was a marvel.

His look was ever upward to where fibrous clouds shifted slowly, or
packed to level bands of mist half concealing Rigaud Hill, as the sun
wheeled higher, till at last, in mid-sky, it flung rays that trembled
on the cross, and gradually revealed the holy sign outlined in upright
and arms. Mini shivered with an awe of expectation; but no nimbus was
disclosed which his imagination could shape to glorious significance.
Yet he went rapturously onward, firm in the belief that up there he
must see Angelique face to face.

As he journeyed the cross gradually lessened in height by
disappearance behind the nearer trees, till only a spot of light was
left, which suddenly was blotted out too. Mini drew a deep breath, and
became conscious of the greatness of the hill,--a towering mass of
brown rock, half hidden by sombre pines and the delicate greenery of
birch and poplar. But soon, because the cross _was_ hidden, he could
figure it all the more gloriously, and entertain all the more
luminously the belief that there were heavenly presences awaiting him.
He pressed on with all his speed, and began to ascend the mountain
early in the afternoon.

"Higher," said the women gathering pearly-bloomed blueberries on the
steep hillside. "Higher," said t