Page:Dealings with the dead.djvu/132

 Even animals were there—some of familiar and well-known forms, some of new and singular shape and peculiar grace. Birds—rare-birds, of the most brilliant plumage, played amidst the trees, and warbled songs of strange melody and meaning. Such, and a thousand other things beside, not one of which I had ever imagined to exist, were constituents of the scene upon which my eye now rested for the first time. Taken as a whole, the entire vivorama was, in its nature and effect, at that time, incomprehensible, and at first somewhat oppressive; but this latter feeling was very ephemeral, and gave place to a delight, at once pure, deep and unalloyed. When this scene first burst upon me, my attitude was one of unmingled surprise, and I retained it all the While my soul was drinking in the glory. Casting my eyes groundward, the vision rested upon an opake, cloud-like soil; and while inwardly wondering whether the soil was really what it seemed to be, or not, I heard my name called in well-remembered tones. Turning hastily, I found the sounds came from a grove hard by, whence three persons were seen approaching me. They drew nearer, and I had no difficulty in recognizing one of the comers to be Nellie. I knew her by her general air, not from the appearance of her person; for that was entirely changed, and no longer appearing a mere child, she looked to have reached the happy medium state wherein the girl just begins to be the woman. She was very pretty when she had assumed the status of a child, but now she fairly blazed with a beauty most transcendent. By her side moved a young and noble-looking man, yet one around whom there floated an atmosphere