d the sky blushed into the pale tint of a wild rose,
that deepened softly and steadily with an ever-increasing fiery
brilliance as the minutes glided noiselessly on to the enchanted midnight
hour. A wind began to rustle mysteriously among the pines--then
gradually growing wrathful, strove to whistle a loud defiance to the
roar of the tumbling waters. Through the little nooks and crannies of
the roughly constructed cabin, where the travellers slept, it uttered
small wild shrieks of warning or dismay--and, suddenly, as though
touched by an invisible hand, Sir Philip awoke. A crimson glare
streaming through the open door dazzled his drowsy eyes--was it a forest
on fire? He started up in dreamy alarm,--then remembered where he was.
Realizing that there must be an exceptionally fine sky to cast so ruddy
a reflection on the ground, he threw on his cloak and went outside.

What a wondrous, almost unearthly scene greeted him! His first impulse
was to shout aloud in sheer ecstasy--his next to stand silent in
reverential awe. The great Fall was no longer a sweeping flow of white
foam--it had changed to a sparkling shower of rubies, as though some
great genie, tired of his treasures, were flinging them away by giant
handfuls, in the most reckless haste and lavish abundance. From the
bottom of the cascade a crimson vapor arose, like smoke from flame, and
the whirling rapids, deeply red for the most part, darkened here and
there into an olive-green flecked with gold, while the spray, tossed
high over interrupting rocks and boulders, glittered as it fell like,
small fragments of broken opal. The sky was of one dense uniform
rose-color from west to east,--soft and shimmering as a broad satin
pavilion freshly unrolled,--the sun was invisible, hidden behind the
adjacent mountains, but his rays touched some peaks in the distance, on
which white wreaths of snow lay, bringing them into near and sparkling
prominence.

The whole landscape was transformed--the tall trees, rustling and
swaying in the now boisterous wind, took all flickering tints of color
on their trunks and leaves,--the grey stones and pebbles turned to lumps
of gold and heaps of diamonds, and on the other side of the rapids, a
large tuft of heather in a cleft of the rocks glowed with extraordinary
vividness and warmth, like a suddenly kindled fire. A troop of witches
dancing wildly on the sward,--a ring of fairies,--kelpies tripping from
crag to crag,--a sudden chorus of sw