A slender girl of twelve years' growth steadied a pail of water on
her head, with both dimpled arms thrown up, in ancient classic
Caryatides attitude; and, pausing a moment beside the spring, stood
fronting the great golden dawn--watching for the first level ray of
the coming sun, and chanting the prayer of Habakkuk. Behind her in
silent grandeur towered the huge outline of Lookout Mountain,
shrouded at summit in gray mist; while centre and base showed dense
masses of foliage, dim and purplish in the distance--a stern cowled
monk of the Cumberland brotherhood. Low hills clustered on either
side, but immediately in front stretched a wooded plain, and across
this the child looked at the flushed sky, rapidly brightening into
fiery and blinding radiance. Until her wild song waked echoes among
the far-off rocks, the holy hush of early morning had rested like a
benediction upon the scene, as though nature laid her broad finger
over her great lips, and waited in reverent silence the advent of
the sun. Morning among the mountains possessed witchery and glories
which filled the heart of the girl with adoration, and called from
her lips rude but exultant anthems of praise. The young face, lifted
toward the cloudless east, might have served as a model for a
pictured Syriac priestess--one of Baalbec's vestals, ministering in
the olden time in that wondrous and grand temple at Heliopolis.

The large black eyes held a singular fascination in their mild,
sparkling depths, now full of tender, loving light and childish
gladness; and the flexible red lips curled in lines of orthodox
Greek perfection, showing remarkable versatility of expression;
while the broad, full, polished forehead with its prominent,
swelling brows, could not fail to recall, to even casual observers,
the calm, powerful face of Lorenzo de' Medicis, which, if once