of this
vast nature-temple. There was a soft, warm glow cast aslant amidst the
tall smooth pillars by the descending sun, and but for the soft sigh of
a gentle gale, and the sharply-repeated tap of the woodpecker sounded at
intervals, there was nothing to break the stillness, which to another
might have seemed oppressive.

And now, with a fierce rush, the dammed-back thoughts made at him. Now
was the time for reverie--here in this solitary place. But no--he would
not weakly succumb. It was not to be: he had made a resolution, and he
would keep it. He boldly set himself to fight with a power stronger
than himself, blindly thinking that he might succeed.

How had he succeeded with his gun?

He smiled as he looked at the result of his many hours' tramp--one
solitary teal; and then for a few moments he was dwelling musingly upon
the great subject that had filled his mind during the past month, but
only to dismiss it angrily. He sighed, though, the next moment, and the
soft breeze bore away the word "Isa"; and then romance faded as Brace
sought solace in the small case he drew from his pocket, from which he
selected a very foreign-looking cigar, lit it, and leaning back, began
to emit cloud after cloud of thin blue vapour, till the tobacco roll was
smoked to the very end, when Brace rose, calm and refreshed, ready to
journey homeward.

"A sonnet to his mistress's eyebrow," said Brace, as he moved over the
pine-needles. "Not so bad as that, though, after all."

He had not proceeded a dozen yards, though, before he remembered that he
had left his gun behind, leaning against a tree; and hurrying back, he
was in the act of taking it, when a distant cry came floating through
the trees.

"Hullo!" exclaimed Brace, as he caught up his gun. "Curlew? No, it was
not a curlew; but I've grown so used to the wail of the sea birds, that
I don't know those of my native place. Ha! there it is again."

For once more the cry came ringing faintly by--a long, low, prolonged
scream, as of some one in peril; when, roused by the exciting promise of
adventure, he ran swiftly in the direction from whence the cry seemed to
have come.

In a few minutes he was at the edge of the grove, gazing over the open
marsh, to see nothing; when, fancying that he must have come in the
wrong direction, he stood listening intently for another cry.

A full minute elapsed--a minute during which he could hear his heart
beating heavily--and then once