festoons, around the bridal-bower of Eve. The modest little wife had
wrought this piece of tapestry while the other guests were talking. She
and her husband fell asleep with hands tenderly clasped, and awoke from
visions of unearthly radiance to meet the more blessed light of one
another's eyes. They awoke at the same instant, and with one happy
smile beaming over their two faces, which grew brighter with their
consciousness of the reality of life and love. But no sooner did she
recollect where they were, than the bride peeped through the interstices
of the leafy curtain, and saw that the outer room of the hut was
deserted.

'Up, dear Matthew!' cried she, in haste. 'The strange folk are all gone!
Up, this very minute, or we shall loose the Great Carbuncle!'

In truth, so little did these poor young people deserve the mighty prize
which had lured them thither, that they had slept peacefully all night,
and till the summits of the hills were glittering with sunshine; while
the other adventurers had tossed their limbs in feverish wakefulness, or
dreamed of climbing precipices, and set off to realize their dreams
with the earliest peep of dawn. But Matthew and Hannah, after their calm
rest, were as light as two young deer, and merely stopped to say their
prayers and wash themselves in a cold pool of the Amonoosuck, and
then to taste a morsel of food, ere they turned their faces to the
mountainside. It was a sweet emblem of conjugal affection, as they
toiled up the difficult ascent, gathering strength from the mutual aid
which they afforded. After several little accidents, such as a torn
robe, a lost shoe, and the entanglement of Hannah's hair in a bough,
they reached the upper verge of the forest, and were now to pursue a
more adventurous course. The innumerable trunks and heavy foliage of the
trees had hitherto shut in their thoughts, which now shrank affrighted