that it was upon that occasion that I went
suddenly mad with trouble, and all the rest is a lunatic's fancy! This
fine old country seat of which I vainly think myself the mistress, is
just the pauper madhouse to which the magistrates have sent me. This
fine old military officer whom I call uncle is the head doctor. The
servants who come at my call are the keepers.

"There is no figure out of my past life in my present one except Herbert
Greyson. But, pshaw! he is not 'the nephew of his uncle;' he is only my
old comrade, Herbert Greyson, the sailor lad, who comes here to the
madhouse to see me, and, out of compassion, humors all my fancies.

"I wonder how long they'll keep me here? Forever, I hope. Until I get
cured, I'm sure. I hope they won't cure me; I vow I won't be cured. It's
a great deal too pleasant to be mad, and I'll stay so. I'll keep on
calling myself Miss Black, and this madhouse my country seat, and the
head doctor my uncle, and the keepers servants, until the end of time,
so I will. Catch me coming to my senses, when it's so delightful to be
mad. I'm too sharp for that. I didn't grow up in Rag Alley, New York,
for nothing."

So, half in jest and half in earnest, Capitola soliloquized upon her
change of fortune.

Her education was commenced, but progressed rather irregularly. Old
Hurricane bought her books and maps, slates and copy-books, set her
lessons in grammar, geography and history, and made her write copies, do
sums and read and recite lessons to him. Mrs. Condiment taught her the
mysteries of cutting and basting, back-stitching and felling, hemming
and seaming. A pupil as sharp as Capitola soon mastered her tasks, and
found herself each day with many hours of leisure with which she did not
know what to do.

These hours were at first occupied with exploring the old house, with
all its attics, cuddies, cock-lofts and cellars; then in wandering
through the old ornamental grounds, that were, even in winter and in
total neglect, beautiful with their wild growth of evergreens; thence
she extended her researches into the wild and picturesque country
around.

She was never weary of admiring the great forest that climbed the
heights of the mountains behind their house; the great bleak precipices
of gray rock seen through the leafless branches of the trees; the rugged
falling ground that lay before the house and between it and the river;
and the river itself, with its rushing stream and raging rapids.