"I wish we could transplant it," said Edmund; "but after all, perhaps
its being so remote and inaccessible is one of its great charms. Ah!
young monkey, is it you?" added he, as Gerald, a merry bright-eyed boy
of seven years old, came rushing from behind and commenced a romping
attack upon him. "Take care, not such a disturbance close to papa."

"O mamma, we have had the most delightful day!" cried Marian, springing
to the side of her mother, who now came forward from the kitchen garden,
and whose fair and gentle, but careworn, anxious face, lighted up with a
bright sweet smile, as she observed the glow on her daughter's usually
pale cheek, and the light that danced in her dark brown eye.

"I'm glad you have had such a pleasant day, my dear," said she. "It is
very kind in Edmund to be troubled with such a wild goose."

"Wild geese are very good things in their way," said Edmund; "water and
land, precipice and moor, 'tis all the same to them."

"And when will you take me, Edmund?" asked Gerald.

"When you have learnt to comport yourself with as much discretion as
Marian, master," said Edmund, sitting down on the grass, and rolling the
kicking, struggling boy over and over, while Marian stood by her papa,
showing him her sketches, and delighted by hearing him recognize the
different spots. "How can you remember them so well, papa," said she,
"when it is so very long since you saw them?"

"That is the very reason," he answered, "we do not so much dwell on what
is constantly before us as when we have long lost sight of it. To be
confined to the house for a few years is an excellent receipt for