ce turned up
to the great green boughs that seemed pencilled against the azure sky,
"if one could paint what one feels! Look at these silent, living trees
that stand in all their grandeur under some mighty spell; see how the
wonderful heaven steals through the leaves and throws its blue softness
upon the twilight gloom; here at our feet nestle the soft, green ferns,
and over all is the indescribable fragrance of the redwoods. Turn there,
to your right, little artist, high up on that mountain; can you see
through the shimmering haze a great team moving as if through the air?
It is like the vision of the Bethshemites in Dore's mystic work, when in
the valley they lifted up their eyes and beheld the ark returning. Oh,
Floy, it is not Nature; it is God. And who can paint God?"

"No one. If one could paint Him, He would no longer be great," answered
the girl, resting her sober eyes upon Ruth's enraptured countenance.

One afternoon Ruth took a book and Ethel over the tramway to this fairy
spot. It was very warm and still. Mrs. Levice had swung herself to sleep
in the hammock, and Mr. Levice was dozing and talking in snatches to the
Tyrrells, who were likewise resting on the Levices' veranda. All Nature
was drowsy, as Ruth wandered off with the little one, who chattered on
as was her wont.

"Me and you's yunnin' away," she chatted; "we's goin' to a fowest, and
by and by two 'ittle birdies will cover us up wid leaves. My! Won't my
mamma be sorry? No darlin' 'ittle Ethel to pank and tiss no more. Poor
Mamma!"

"Does Ethel think Mamma likes to spank her?"

"Yes; Mamma does des what she likes."

"But it is only when Ethel is naughty that Mamma spanks her. Here,
sweetheart, let me tie your sunbonnet tighter. Now Ruth is going to lie
here and read, and you can play hide-and-seek all about these trees."

"Can I go wound and sit on dat log by a bwook?"

"Yes."

"Oh, I's afwaid. I's dweffully afwaid."

"Why, you can turn round and talk to me all the time."

"But nobody'll be sitting by me at all."

"I am here just where you can see me; besides, God will be right next to
you."

"Will He? Ven all yight."

Ruth took off her hat and prepared to enjoy herself. As her head touched
the green earth, she saw the little maiden seat herself on the log, and
turning her face sideways, say in her pleasant, piping voice,--

"How-de-do, Dod?" And having made her acknowledgments, all her fears
vanished.

Ruth laughed softly to her