sorrow and delight that crossed my mind with the frequently
returning thought of my last night's hostess. "But then,"
thought I, "if she is sorry, I could not help it; and she has all
the pleasures she ever had. Such a day as this is surely a joy
to her, as much at least as to me. And her life will perhaps be
the richer, for holding now within it the memory of what came,
but could not stay. And if ever she is a woman, who knows but we
may meet somewhere? there is plenty of room for meeting in the
universe." Comforting myself thus, yet with a vague compunction,
as if I ought not to have left her, I went on. There was little
to distinguish the woods to-day from those of my own land; except
that all the wild things, rabbits, birds, squirrels, mice, and
the numberless other inhabitants, were very tame; that is, they
did not run away from me, but gazed at me as I passed, frequently
coming nearer, as if to examine me more closely. Whether this
came from utter ignorance, or from familiarity with the human
appearance of beings who never hurt them, I could not tell. As I
stood once, looking up to the splendid flower of a parasite,
which hung from the branch of a tree over my head, a large white
rabbit cantered slowly up, put one of its little feet on one of
mine, and looked up at me with its red eyes, just as I had been
looking up at the flower above me. I stooped and stroked it; but
when I attempted to lift it, it banged the ground with its hind
feet and scampered off at a great rate, turning, however, to look
at me several times before I lost sight of it. Now and then,
too, a dim human figure would appear and disappear, at some
distance, amongst the trees, moving like a sleep-walker. But no
one ever came near me.

This day I found plenty of food in the forest--strange nuts and