about more, but my loneliness goes everywhere with me. Everything is
so still here, that it sometimes makes me afraid. The moonlight looks
awfully solemn on the dark pines. You remember that dead pine-tree?
The wind has broken it, and there it stands in front of the evergreen
grove, with two arms spread out, and a knot like a head with a hat
on it, and a streamer of moss hanging from it. It looks so white and
strange in the moonlight, that it seems as if Floracita's spirit were
beckoning to me.

"But I didn't mean to write about sad things. I don't feel sad now;
I was only telling you how lonely and nervous I _had_ been, that
you might imagine how much good it has done me to see such kind
arrangements at Magnolia Lawn. Forgive me for going there, contrary
to your orders. I did so long for a little variety! I couldn't have
dreamed you were planning such a pleasant surprise for me. Sha'n't we
be happy there, calling one another all the old foolish pet names?
Dear, good Gerald, I shall never again have any ungrateful doubts of
your love.

"_Adios, luz de mes ojos_. Come soon to

"Your grateful and loving

"ROSA."

That evening the plash of the waves no longer seemed like a requiem
over her lost sister; the moonlight gave poetic beauty to the pines;
and even the blasted tree, with its waving streamer of moss, seemed
only another picturesque feature in the landscape; so truly does
Nature give us back a reflection of our souls.