Page:A New England Tale.djvu/153

142 looked like, the wild genius of the savage scene., [sic] and she seemed to breathe its spirit, when, after a moment's silence, she sang, with a powerful and thrilling voice, which waked the sleeping echoes of the mountain, the following stanza:

In vain Jane called upon her. In vain she entreated her to descend. She seemed wrapt in some heavenly vision; and she stood mute again and motionless, till a bird, that had been scared from its nest in a cleft of the rock, by the wild sounds, fluttered over her and lit on the branch she still held in her hand. "Oh!" exclaimed she, "messenger of love, and omen of mercy, I am content;" and she swiftly descended the sloping side of the rock, which she hardly seemed to touch.

"Now," said Jane, soothingly, "you are rested, let us go on."

"Rested! yes, my body is rested, but my spirit has been the way of the eagle in the air. You cannot bear the revelation now, child. Come on, and do your earthly work."

They walked on for a few yards, when Bet, suddenly turned to the left and ascended the mountain, which was there less steep and rugged than at any place they had passed. At a short distance