pleasing indolence, born of the afternoon, the sunlight, and the red wine,
came to dwell in the valley. One of the company beneath the spreading
sugar-tree laid his pipe upon the grass, clasped his hands behind his
head, and, with his eyes on the azure heaven showing between branch and
leaf, sang the song of Amiens of such another tree in such another forest.
The voice was manly, strong, and sweet; the rangers quit their talk of war
and hunting to listen, and the negroes, down by the fire which they had
built for themselves, laughed for very pleasure.

When the wine was all drunken and the smoke of the tobacco quite blown
away, a gentleman who seemed of a somewhat saturnine disposition, and less
susceptible than his brother adventurers to the charms of the wood nymphs,
rose, and declared that he would go a-fishing in the dark crystal of the
stream below. His servant brought him hook and line, while the
grasshoppers in the tall grass served for bait. A rock jutting over the
flood formed a convenient seat, and a tulip-tree lent a grateful shade.
The fish were abundant and obliging; the fisherman was happy. Three
shining trophies had been landed, and he was in the act of baiting the
hook that should capture the fourth, when his eyes chanced to meet the
eyes of the child Audrey, who had left her covert of purple-berried alder,
and now stood beside him. Tithonus, green and hale, skipped from between
his fingers, and he let fall his line to put out a good-natured hand and
draw the child down to a seat upon the rock. "Wouldst like to try thy
skill, moppet?" he demanded.

The child shook her head. "Are you a prince?" she asked, "and is the grand
gentleman with, the long hair and the purple coat the King?"

The fisherman laughed. "No, little one, I'm only a poor ensign. The
gentleman yonder, being the representative in Virginia of my Lord of