in his hand, and he gazed at me as one not well awake, that has been
roused from dreams; with something in his looks, too, of the
startled animal that would run away and dare not. There is no
knowing how long we might have stood there staring at each other,
but for a sudden gust of wind that whisked off my hat, whereupon the
young man and I both started downhill in pursuit. The wind was
playful, and led us a fine dance; we were obliged to laugh. When at
last he caught and handed back to me my property, we were thoroughly
exhausted and sat down at the foot of the hill on the mossy
tree-roots. I am sure we must have looked very silly, for we were so
out of breath that we could not leave off laughing,--my young man
has the heartiest laugh I ever heard. When we had somewhat
recovered, I said:

"I wonder why one always laughs when something blows away?"

"It is," he replied, with mock gravity, "what people call a wise
dispensation of Providence. There is nothing between laughter and
tears."

It never entered my head to get up and go my way; his shyness, too,
seemed vanished; we were quite at ease.

"Have you ever noticed," asked he, "how many different kinds of moss
there are in these woods?"--and we began to count the varieties as
we sat. At last I looked up and saw that the heavens were blue.

"I'm going uphill again," said I, "to see the sunset. How quickly
the sky has cleared! It almost seems as if some invisible broom had
made a clean sweep of the clouds." To which the young man answered: