d in a harvest of scarlet cherries; and here
sheep and goats nibbled over little, bright tracts of sweet grass.
Higher yet shone out groves of chestnut trees, all shining with the
light of their tassels, very bright by contrast with the gloom of
the mountain pines.

And then, where two tall cypresses stood upon either side, Jenny
and Assunta found the shrine and stayed a while. Jenny set down the
basket which she carried with their midday meal, and her companion
dropped the great bin destined to hold mulberry leaves.

The lake below was now reduced to a cup of liquid jade over which
shot streamers of light into the mountain shadows at its brink; but
there were vessels floating on the waters that held the watchers'
eyes.

They looked like twin, toy torpedo boats--mere streaks of red and
black upon the water, with Italy's flag at the taffrail. But the
little ships were no toys and Assunta hated them, for the strange
craft told of the ceaseless battle waged by authority against the
mountain smugglers and reminded the widow of her own lawless
husband's death ten years before. Caesar Marzelli had taken his cup
to the well once too often and had lost his life in a pitched battle
with the officers of the customs.

Long shafts of glory shot between the mountains and drenched the
lake; the shoulders of the lesser hills flamed; the waters beneath
them flashed; and far away, among the table-lands of the morning
mist, against a sapphire sky, there gleamed the last patches of
snow.

A cross of rusty iron surmounted the little sanctuary by which they
sat, and the roof was of old tiles scorched a mellow tint of brown.
To Maris Stella was the shrine dedicated; and within, under the
altar, white bones gleamed--skulls and thighs and ribs of men and
women who had perished of the plague in far-off time.

"_Morti della peste_," read Jenny, on the front of the altar, and
Assunta, in gloomy mood before the recollection of the past, spoke
to her young mistress and shook her head.

"I envy them sometimes, signora. Their troubles are ended. Those
heads, that have ached and wept so often, will never ache and weep
again."

She spoke in Italian and Jenny but partially understood. Yet she
joined Assunta on her knees and together they made their morning
prayer to Mary, Star of the Sea, and asked for what their souls most
desired.

Presently they rose, Assunta the calmer for her petitions, and
together they proceeded upward. The elder tr