blueberries, and, with the easy methods of a household unswayed
by feminine rule, moved toward a seat under an apple-tree and
took his morning meal in great apparent content. Having
finished, and washed his dishes with much more thoroughness than
is common to unsuperintended man, and having given Rufus the
second call to breakfast with the vigor and acrimony that usually
marks that unpleasant performance, he strode to a high point on
the river-bank and, shading his eyes with his hand, gazed
steadily down stream.

Patches of green fodder and blossoming potatoes melted into soft
fields that had been lately mown, and there were glimpses of
tasseling corn rising high to catch the sun. Far, far down on
the opposite bank of the river was the hint of a brown roof, and
the tip of a chimney that sent a slender wisp of smoke into the
clear air. Beyond this, and farther back from the water, the
trees apparently hid a cluster of other chimneys, for thin
spirals of smoke ascended here and there. The little brown roof
could never have revealed itself to any but a lover's eye; and
that discerned something even smaller, something like a pinkish
speck, that moved hither and thither on a piece of greensward
that sloped to the waterside.

"She's up!" Stephen exclaimed under his breath, his eyes shining,
his lips smiling. His voice had a note of hushed exaltation
about it, as if "she," whoever she might be, had, in
condescending to rise, conferred a priceless boon upon a waiting
universe. If she were indeed a "up" (so his tone implied), then
the day, somewhat falsely heralded by the sunrise, had really
begun, and the human race might pursue its appointed tasks,