hich makes life seem so light and so lovely: she conceived a friendship
for that young man who had occasioned it, and whose good heart beamed
forth from his eyes, which at one moment were fixed on the blue heavens,
and then on her own soft blue eyes, with an expression of devotion and a
certain pure earnestness, which she had never observed in him before.
Elise felt that she could now undertake the explanation with him; she
felt that she could talk with him openly and warmly as a sister, and
that the truth would flow from her lips, without wounding him or giving
him pain.

Scarcely, however, had she with cordial, though with tremulous voice,
began to speak, when an uneasy movement among the children interrupted
her. Some looked in the hedges, some ran about under the trees, and the
name "Petrea! Petrea!" was repeated in every variety of tone. The mother
looked uneasily around, and the Candidate sprang up to see what was
amiss. It was nothing uncommon for Petrea to separate herself from the
rest of the children, and occupied by her own little thoughts, to lag
behind; on that account, therefore, nobody had at first troubled
themselves because she was not with them at the collation, for they
said, "she will soon come." Afterwards, Elise and the Candidate were too
much occupied by their own thoughts; and the children said as usual,
"she'll soon come." But when she did not come, they began to seek for
her, and Elise and the Candidate came to their assistance. They ran back
to the grotto; they sought and called, but all in vain--Petrea was
nowhere to be found! and uneasiness very soon changed itself into actual
anxiety.

We will now ourselves go in quest of Petrea. So enchanted was she with
the Wood-god and his music, that no sooner had she, with the others,
begun to climb the hill, than she turned back to the grotto, and there,
transported by its wonderful world, she was suddenly possessed by a
desire to acquaint her father and Brigitta, with her having seen the
Wood-god. Resolve and action are much more one with children than with
women. To be the first who should carry to the father the important
tidings, "Father, I have seen the Wood-god!" was a temptation too strong
for Petrea's ambition and craving for sympathy.

She had heard them say that they should rest on the hill; and as her
organ of locality was as feeble as her imagination was powerful, she
never doubted for a moment of being able to run home and back before