a capital compound of sense,
goodness, business energies, and gentle wisdom. The others--well, yes,
they were of the despised orders of the world. My friend Darry, at the
stables of Magnolia--my friend Maria, in the kitchen of the great
house--the other sable and sober faces that came around theirs in
memory's grouping--they were not educated nor polished nor elegant.
Yet well I knew, that having owned Christ before men, He would own
them before the angels of heaven; and what would they be in that day!
I was satisfied to be numbered with them.

I slept, as Dr. Sandford had prophesied I would that night. I awoke to
a vision of beauty.

My remembrance of those days that followed is like a summer morning,
with a diamond hanging to every blade of grass.

I awoke suddenly, that first day, and rushed to the window. The light had
broken, the sun was up; the crown of the morning was upon the heads of
the hills; here and there a light wreath of mist lay along their sides,
floating slowly off, or softly dispersing; the river lay in quiet beauty
waiting for the gilding that should come upon it. I listened--the brisk
notes of a drum and fife came to my ear, playing one after another
joyous and dancing melody. I thought that never was a place so utterly
delightsome as this place. With all speed I dressed myself, noiselessly,
so as not to waken Mrs. Sandford; and then I resolved I would go out and
see if I could not find a place where I could be by myself; for in the
house there was no chance of it. I took Mr. Dinwiddie's Bible and stole
downstairs. From the piazza where we had sat last night, a flight of
steps led down. I followed it and found another flight, and still
another. The last landed me in a gravelled path; one track went down the
steep face of the bank, on the brow of which the hotel stood; another
track crossed that and wound away to my right, with a gentle downward
slope. I went this way. The air was delicious; the woods were musical
with birds; the morning light filled my pathway and glancing from trees
or rocks ahead of me, lured me on with a promise of glory. I seemed to
gather the promise as I went, and still I was drawn farther and farther.
Glimpses of the river began to show through the trees; for all this bank
side was thickly wooded. I left walking and took to running. At last I
came out upon another gravelled walk, low down on the hillside, lying
parallel with the river and open to it. Nothing lay between bu