A TALE.

BY

THE AUTHOR OF "A NEW ENGLAND TALE."

"Whilst the infidel mocks at the superstitions of the vulgar, insults
over their credulous fears, their childish errors, their fantastic rites,
it does not occur to him to observe, that the most preposterous device by
which the weakest devotee ever believed he was securing the happiness
of a future life, is more rational than unconcern about it. Upon this
subject nothing is so absurd as indifference ;-no folly so contemptible
as thoughtlessness or levity."- -PALEY.

IN THREE VOLUMES.

VOL. III.

LONDON:

JOHN MILLER, 5, NEW BRIDGE STREET,

AND

WILLIAM BLACKWOOD, EDINBURGH.

REDWOOD.

CHAPTER XVIII.

"Il y a dans l'aspect de la contrée quelque chose de calme et de doux qui prépare l'âme à sortir des agitations de la vie." Madame de Stael.

It was a fine afternoon in the month of August when our travellers passed the romantic road which traverses the mountain that forms the eastern boundary of the valley of Hancock. The varied pleasures they had enjoyed during the day, and the excitement of drawing near to the object of their long journey, animated them both with unusual spirits. Deborah's tongue was voluble in praise of the rich farms that spread out on the declivities of the hills, or embosomed in

the protected vallies, called forth, as they deserved, the enthusiastic commendations of our experienced rustic. Ellen listened in silence while she gazed with the eye of an amateur upon this beautiful country, which possesses all the elements of the picturesque. Green hills crowned with flourishing villages-village spires rising just where they should rise; for the scene is nature's temple, and the altar should be there-lakes sparkling like gems in the distant vallies-Saddle mountain lifting his broad shoulders to the northern sky, and the Catskills defining with their blue and misty outline. the western horizon.

A sudden exclamation from Deborah fixed Ellen's attention to one spot in the wide spread landscape. "As I live," she said, "there is the very place at last-see, Ellen, the yellow houses they told us of."

Ellen turned her eye to the long line of habitations of a uniform colour and