Page:A New England Tale.djvu/201

190 and example of his Master, will be moved and governed by this principle."

Perhaps Edward felt a passing conviction of the truth of Jane's assertions; at any rate, he made no reply, and afterwards he shunned the subject; and even Jane seemed to shrink from it as one upon which they had no common feeling.

The day before entering on the duties of her second school-term, Jane determined to indulge herself in a solitary walk to the cottage of old John of the Mountain. She had purchased some comforts for the old people, with a part of her small earnings, and she knew if she carried them herself she should double their value. She found the way without difficulty, for her night-walk had indelibly impressed it on her memory. On her approach to the cottage, and as she emerged from the wood, she perceived just on its verge a slight rising in the form of a grave; a wild rose-bush grew beside it. Jane paused for a moment, and plucking one of the flowers, she said, 'fragrant and transient, thou art a fit emblem of the blasted flower below!' As she turned from the grave, she perceived that a magical change had been wrought upon John's hut. Instead of a scarcely habitable dwelling, of decayed logs, filled in with mud, she saw a neat little framed house, with a fence around it, and a small garden annexed to it, enclosed by the logs of the former building. Jane hastened forward, and entered the cottage with the light step of one who goes on an errand of kindness.