rept nearer and
hid my face in his coat. Dear Uncle Rolf, I loved him from that
moment. The rest of the day seemed like a dream.

"We were speeding through a strange unknown country, past fields and
hedge-rows, and stretches of smooth uplands, ugly plowed lands and
patches of gray sullen gloom that resembled the sea.

"Now I was gazing out blankly at the dreary landscape, and now nodding
drowsily on my uncle's shoulder, till all at once we stopped under
some dark trees, and a voice very close to me said, 'Let me lift her
out, father.' And then some one carried me into a sudden blaze of
light; and all at once I found myself in a large pleasant room with
some sweet-smelling wood burning on the hearth, and a girl with
dead-brown curls sewing at a little table with a white china lamp on
it.

"The strong arms that had carried me in and put me on the sofa, and
were now bungling over the fastenings of my heavy cloak, belonged to a
tall youth with a pleasant face, that somehow attracted me.

"'Come and help me, Maggie,' he said, laughing, and then the fair,
mild face of Margaret bent over me.

"'Poor child, how tired she looks, Raby,' I heard her whisper, 'and so
cold, too, the darling;' and then she knelt down beside me and chafed
my hands, and talked to me kindly; and Raby brought me some hot
coffee, and stood watching me drink it, looking down at me with his
vivid dark eyes, those kind, beautiful eyes--oh, Raby, Raby!" and here
for a moment Crystal buried her face in her hands, and Fern was
grieved to see the tears were streaming through her fingers.

"Do not go on if it troubles you," she said, gently; "I am interested,
oh, so interested in that poor little lonely child; but if it pains
you to recall those days, you shall not distress yourself for me."

"Yes--yes--I wish to tell it, only give me one moment." And for a
little while she wept bitterly; then drying her eyes, she went on in a
broken voice:

"Ah, I was not lonely long; thank God, there is nothing more
transitory than a child's grief, deep and inconsolable as it first
appears.

"I did not forget my mother--I do not forget her now, but in a short
time I threw off all traces of sadness. The change, the novelty of my
life, the unfailing kindness that I experienced, soon worked a
beneficial effect on my health and spirits. In a little while I ceased
to regret Italy and its blue skies--and the Grange with its dear
inmates became my world.

"But it was Rab