ght otherwise be, in fine weather, a tolerably pleasant one. It
made Oliver indignant to think that a stout lad, whom they had wished to
make welcome to all they had, in their common adversity, should be
skulking in the wood as an enemy, instead of helping them in their
labours, under circumstances in which all should be friends. This
thought made Oliver so angry that he did not choose to speak of Roger.
When Ailwin offered to seek him out, and do her best to tie his limbs
again, and carry him away to any place the children chose, Oliver begged
her to say no more about it; and observed that they had better forget
Roger altogether, if they could, unless he should come to make peace.

There was one, however, who could not for a moment forget who was the
cause of the late quarrel. Mildred was very unhappy at the thought of
the mischief she had done by her shriek. Not all her hard toil of this
evening could console her. When the cloth had been spread over the
lower branches of a great ash, so as to shelter the party, in a careless
way, for this one night (when there was no time to make a proper tent),
and while Ailwin was heating something for supper, and Oliver dozing
with George on one of the beds, Mildred stole away, to consider whether
there was anything that she could do to cure Roger's anger. It did her
good, at least, to sit down and think about it. She sat down under a
tree, above where the bee-shed had stood. The moon had just risen, and
was very bright, being near the full. The clouds seemed to have come
down out of the sky, to rest upon the earth; for white vapours, looking
as soft as wreaths of snow, were hovering over the wide waste of waters.
Some of these were gently floating or curling, while others brooded
still, like large white birds over their hidden nests. It seemed to
Mildred's eye, however, as if a clear path had been cut through these
mists, from the Red-hill to the moon on the horizon, and as if this path
had been strewed with quivering moonbeams. She forgot, while gazing,
that she was looking out upon the carr,--upon muddy waters which covered
the ruins of many houses, and in which were hidden the bodies of drowned
animals, and perhaps of some people. She looked upon the train of
trembling light, and felt not only how beautiful it was, but that He
whose hand kindled that mild heavenly lamp, and poured out its rays
before his children's eyes, would never forget and forsake them. While
ev