and and arm no marble goddess could have matched,
for this had the color and charm of life. As she stood revealed by the
strong light that fell around her, every feature ennobled with the glory
of intellect, she appeared to me a creature of unearthly loveliness, as
something divine.

I spoke to Wauna of the rare beauty and elegance of her dress.

"She looks like a fabled Naiad just risen from the deep," was my
criticism on her.

"Her dress," answered Wauna, "is intended to be emblematical of Nature.
The sea-green robe, the water lilies of pearls, the foamy lace are all
from Nature's Cradle of Life."

"How poetical!" I exclaimed.

But then Mizora is full of that charming skill that blends into perfect
harmony the beautiful and useful in life.

CHAPTER XIII.

On my return to college, after the close of vacation, I devoted myself
exclusively to history. It began with their first President; and from
the evidence of history itself, I knew that the Nation was enjoying a
high state of culture when its history began.

No record of a more primitive race was to be found in all the Library,
assiduously as I searched for it. I read with absorbing interest their
progress toward perfect enlightenment, their laborious searchings into
science that had resulted in such marvelous achievements. But earnestly
as I sought for it, and anxiously as I longed for it, I found and heard
no mention of a race of men. From the most intimate intercourse with the
people of Mizora, I could discover no attempt at concealment in
anything, yet the inquiry _would_ crowd itself upon me. "Where are the
men?" And as constantly would I be forced to the conclusion that Mizora
was either a land of mystery beyond the scope of the wildest and
weirdest fancy, or else they were utterly oblivious of such a race. And
the last conclusion was most improbable of all.

Man, in my country, was a necessity of government, law, and protection.
His importance, (as I viewed it from inherited ideas) was incalculable.
It _could_ not be possible that he had no existence in a country so
eminently adapted to his desires and ability.

The expression, "domestic misery," that the Preceptress made use of one
day in conversation with me, haunted my imagination with a persistent
suspicion of mystery. It had a familiar sound to me. It intimated
knowledge of a world _I_ knew so well; where ill-nature, malice, spite,
envy, deceit, falsehood and dishonesty, made life a con