ing before him in a
bewilderment of admiration. The cascades leaped laughingly from rock to
rock, and were lost in a limpid pool; then flowed away as a gentle,
rippling brook.

"How lovely!" gasped Lionel; and he bent forward, and looked into the
placid surface of the water in the rocky basin. But what did he behold
there? A vision that appalled him, and caused him to start back
abashed--_himself_, all grimy, with his matted hair and besmeared face!
For he had still the dress of the gold mine clinging to him; and he wept
for shame to feel himself so ugly in a spot where all was beauty.

Lionel stood and gazed on the silver stream with his wondering eyes; he
observed the little birdies come down quite fearlessly to quench their
thirst, and lave their tiny bodies in the cooling drops. Then he, too,
trembling at his own temerity, bathed himself in the crystal pool, and
came forth fair and shining, with his sunny locks waving on his
shoulders.

And now he continued his path through the forest with a happy heart;
for, what if his garments _were_ old and mud-stained, he felt that he
himself was fresh and comely!

Young Lionel gathered a nosegay as he went, harebells and violets,
oxlips and anemones; thinking all the while of the tales his mother oft
had told him about his father's skill in flowers. And heartily he
laughed at the frolics of the cunning little squirrels he spied for the
first time among the branches over his head.

At last he heard the echo of many voices and the sounds of merry-making,
and paused, hesitating and timid. Whence came all this laughter and
these cries of mirth? Surely not from the voice of one being, a
sallow-looking female attired in gaudy garments, like a gipsy, who now
came along his path.

"Turn, noble sir, and come with me," she cried, "and I will tell thee
thy fortune!"

But Lionel liked not her artful eyes, so he only said, "What sounds are
those?"

"They are the inhabitants of the country," answered the female vaguely;
"but beware of them, young stranger, they will surely take thy life."

"But I must see them," cried Lionel, "their voices please my ears! They
seem to be very happy."

"Such happiness is not for thee, young man!" shrieked the fortune-teller
angrily. "Be warned, and return from whence thou camest; else these
country clowns, when they behold thy miserable attire, will stone thee
to death, as a thief or a highwayman."

Lionel was shocked; yet the leer of the gips