far advanced as O'Rorke bent his steps to the orchard. The pale, but
cloudless sun hung over the western hills, and sun upon the quiet gray
fields that kind of tranquil radiance which, in the opening of summer,
causes many a silent impulse of delight to steal into the heart. Lamh
Laudher felt this; his step was slow, like that of a man who, without
being capable of tracing those sources of enjoyment which the spirit
absorbs from the beauties of external nature, has yet enough of
uneducated taste and feeling within him, to partake of the varied feast
which she presents.

As he sauntered thus leisurely along he was met by a woman rather
advanced in years, but still unusually stout and muscular, considering
her age. She was habited in a red woollen petticoat that reached but
a short distance below the knee, leaving visible two stout legs, from
which dangled a pair of red garters that bound up her coarse blue hose.
Her gown of blue worsted was pinned up, for it did not meet around her
person, though it sat closely about her neck. Her grizzly red hair,
turned up in front, was bound by a dowd cap without any border, a
circumstance which, in addition to a red kerchief, tied over it, and
streaming about nine inches down the back, gave to her _tout ensemble_
a wild and striking expression. A short oaken staff, hooked under the
hand, completed the description of her costume. Even on a first glance
there appeared to be something repulsive in her features, which had
evidently been much exposed to sun and storm. By a closer inspection one
might detect upon their hard angular outline, a character of cruelty and
intrepidity. Though her large cheek-bones stood widely asunder, yet her
gray piercing eyes were very near each other; her nose was short and
sadly disfigured by a scar that ran tranversely across it, and her chin,
though pointed, was also deficient in length. Altogether, her whole
person had something peculiar and marked about it--so much so, indeed,