and the same hour that brought these twins to the world seemed to have
breathed through them a sweetness and an affection of heart and mind
which nothing could divide. If, like the virgin queen of the immortal
poet, she walked 'in maiden meditation fancy free,' her brother Elphin
seemed alike untouched with the charms of the fairest virgins in Corrie.
He ploughed his field, he reaped his grain, he leaped, he ran, and
wrestled, and danced, and sang, with more skill and life and grace than
all other youths of the district; but he had no twilight and stolen
interviews; when all other young men had their loves by their side, he
was single, though not unsought, and his joy seemed never perfect save
when his sister was near him. If he loved to share his time with her,
she loved to share her time with him alone, or with the beasts of the
field, or the birds of the air. She watched her little flock late, and
she tended it early; not for the sordid love of the fleece, unless it was
to make mantles for her brother, but with the look of one who had joy in
its company. The very wild creatures, the deer and the hares, seldom
sought to shun her approach, and the bird forsook not its nest, nor
stinted its song, when she drew nigh; such is the confidence which maiden
innocence and beauty inspire.

"It happened one summer, about three years after they became orphans,
that rain had been for a while withheld from the earth, the hillsides
began to parch, the grass in the vales to wither, and the stream of
Corrie was diminished between its banks to the size of an ordinary rill.
The shepherds drove their flocks to moorlands, and marsh and tarn had
their reeds invaded by the scythe to supply the cattle with food. The
sheep of his sister were Elphin's constant care; he drove them to the
moistest pastures during the day, and he often watched them at midnight,
when flocks, tempted by the sweet dewy grass, are known to browse
eagerly, that he might guard them from the fox, and lead them to the