ments, and instead, spent the hours in laughing,
playing and reading in the pleasant arbor. Thus the morning drew on,
and the lovely autumn day sailed past with all its life and splendor
toward the west. Fanny was gazing toward the house, as they thus sat
in the arbor, and Redbud was smiling, when a gentleman, clothed in a
forest costume, and carrying a rifle, made his appearance at the door
of the Bower of Nature.

"Oh, Reddy!" cried Fanny, "there's your friend, Verty; and look what a
fright he is!"

CHAPTER XXXIV.

HOW MISS SALLIANNA ALLUDED TO VIPERS, AND FELL INTO HYSTERICS.

Verty paused upon the threshold of the mansion to push back his long,
curling hair; and with a glance behind him, toward Cloud, meant as
a caution to that intelligent animal and to Longears, deposited his
rifle against the door.

The young man, as we have said, had once more donned his rude forest
costume; and even at the risk of appearing to undervalue the graces
and attractions of civilization with the costume, which is a necessary
part thereof, we must say that the change was an improvement.
Verty's figure, in the dress which he generally wore, was full
of picturesqueness and wild interest. He looked like a youthful
Leather-stocking; and seemed to be a part of the forest in which he
lived, and from which he came.

He had been cramped in the rich clothes; and the consciousness of this
feeling, so to speak, had made his manner stiff and unnatural; now,
however, he was forest Verty again. His long hair had already become
tangled, thanks to the autumn winds, and the gallop to which he had
pushed Cloud;--his person assumed its habitual attitude of wild grace;
his eye no longer restless and troubled, had recovered its expression
of dreamy mobility, and his lips were wreathed with the odd Indian
smile, which just allowed the ends of the white teeth to thread
them;--Verty was himself again.

He raised his head, and would have caught sight of the young girls in
the garden, but for a circumstance which occurred just at that moment.

This circumstance was the appearance of Miss Sallianna--Miss Sallianna
arrayed in all her beauties and attractions, including a huge
breastpin, a dress of enormous pattern, and a scarf around her
delicate waist, azure-hued and diaphanous like the sky, veiled with an
imperceptible cloud.

The lady was smiling more than ever; her air was more languishing; her
head inclined farther to one side. Such was he