Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER The last chapter brought Mary to the threshold of her fifteenth year; the succeeding twelve months she dwelt at Avon under the paternal roof. It was this year's residence at home which bound the scenes of that valley so closely to her heart, that no other spot on earth ever seemed half so dear to her. She was unusually well and strong; and, as she was studying under the tuition of her father and mother, was permitted unrestrained intercourse with Nature. She was never tired of this sweet companionship ; and there was not a nook in all that valley, or the broad mountainside beyond, which had not been visited by her exploring feet. She had exchanged secrets with every babbling brook, lounged gratefully under every protecting shade ; and, from the misty mountain-top, her fancy, with tireless wing, had taken far circuits into the dim future. In a letter, written during the year to a beloved companion at New Haven, she thus speaks of her attachment to these home-scenes : " This is not, indeed, the home of my nativity, and it may be wanting in many of those hallowed attractions which cluster around a spot where our earliest recollections centre, yet it is a dear and precious home to me. Here my happy childhood has been passed, and here, within a few months, new joys and sorrows, before unknown, have followed each other in quick suc cession. It is here the warmest affections of my heart bestowthemselves, and imagination surrounds each loved object with a bright halo." One of the sorrows here noted was the illness of her mother. Their souls were so closely knit, that one could not suffer alone; and every pang which the mother felt sent an answering thrill through the daughter's heart. Happily, the illness was not of loBg duration ; and the occasion of recovery was a solem...