lighting up the tops of the trees into a yellow sheen, and kindling
into liquid gold the placid surface of Massachusetts Bay, a female
figure was to be seen hovering on the margin of the wood in that
neighborhood. In consequence of the inequalities of the ground, and of
some intervening bushes and trees, the collection of houses that lay
along the shore of the bay was not visible from the spot where she was
walking, nor was there a path to indicate that it was a place of any
resort. It seemed to be a spot well adapted to privacy. No sound was
to be heard, save the occasional tap of a woodpecker, or the whirr of
the wings of a partridge, as, startled by the approach of the person,
he suddenly rose into the air, or the songs of the robins, bidding
farewell, in sweet and plaintive notes, to the disappearing sun. The
female walked on, stopping now and then to gather a wild flower, until
she reached a spring which bubbled at the foot of an immense beech
tree. It ran a rod or two in a silvery stream from its fountain, and
then leaping down a miniature fall into a sort of natural basin,
surrounded with rocks, expanded itself into a small pool, as clear as
crystal. Around the basin were gathered companies of such wood-flowers
as love the water, conspicuous among which, both for number and
beauty, were the yellow and orange blossoms of the elegant "jewels,"
as boys call them. Advancing to this little mirror, the female took a
seat on one of the rocks, on the edge of the water, and bending over,
appeared to contemplate, with no little satisfaction, what she beheld
there; and to tell the truth, it was a pretty face, and justified some
vanity. Black hair and hazel eyes, red lips and blooming cheeks, and a
well-formed person, composed a whole whereon the eye rested with
pleasure. Prudence, (you have guessed it was she,) after looking at
the reflection of herself awhile, and smoothing down a stray tress or
two, selected from the flowers in her hand some of the most beautiful,
and humming a tune, commenced arranging them in her hair. She was some