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134 the doubtful aid of crazy Bet's conduct, or trust solely to her own, she pressed onward. To shorten her way to Lucy's grave, and to avoid the possibility of observation, she soon left the public road, and walked along under the shadow of a low-browed hill, which had formerly been the bank of the river, but from which it had receded and left an interval of beautiful meadow between the hill and its present bed. The deep verdure of the meadow sparkled with myriads of fire-flies, that seemed, in this hour of their dominion, to be keeping their merry revels by the music of the passing stream. The way was, as yet, perfectly familiar to Jane. After walking some distance in a straight line, she crossed the meadow by a direct path to a large tree, which had been, in part, uprooted by a freshet, and which now laid across the river, and supplied a rude passage to the adventurous, the tenacity of some of its roots still retaining it firmly in the bank. Fortunately the stream was unusually low, and when our heroine reached the further extremity of the fallen trunk, she sprang without difficulty over the few feet of water between her and the dry sand of the shore.

"That's well done!" exclaimed crazy Bet, in a voice that made the welkin ring, and starting up from the mound. "Strong of heart, and light of foot, you are a fit follower for one that hates the broad and beaten road, and loves the narrow straight way and the high rock. Sit down and rest you," she continued for Jane was out of