At either hand, high walls of rock, half hid in
trailing vines and clinging herbage, shut out the heat of day; and,
through a thousand ever-changing peepholes among the swaying
foliage, the blue sky looked gayly down, and challenged those who
hid in the glen to come forth, and dare the fervor of the mid-day
sun.
Under a tree near the foot of the fall sat Mrs. Legrange, her head
leaning upon her hand, her book idle upon her lap, watching dreamily
the waters that swayed and ebbed, and paused and coquetted with
every flower or leaf that bent toward them; and yet in the end went
on, always on, as the idlest of us go, until through the merry
brook, the heedless fall, the sparkling stream, and stately river,
we reach at last the ocean, calm, changeless, and eternal in its
unmoved depths.
The lady looked up with a little start as she heard the approaching
footsteps, and then rose with extended hand,--
"Theodore!" said she kindly. "I am very glad to see you; and so
grown! You are much taller than in the spring."
"Yes, ma'am: I believe so. I don't think I shall grow much more,"
said Teddy, swallowing a great bunch in his throat that almost
suffocated him.
"No? Why, you are not so very old, are you?" asked Mrs. Legrange,
smiling a little.
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