"I do not feel quite as fresh as usual," I replied. "However, I am glad you related the tradition, for it gives me food for reflection. However, it is an agreeable surprise to find you here, and you do not appear to be the least lonely."
"No! certainly not. Why should I?" she observed. "I have my own thoughts to keep me company. Of course they may not be quite so absorbing as yours, but still I feel happy."
"That," I said, "is the result of having latent happiness within yourself."
"That I do not know," was the simple reply; "but I think if I did not possess it naturally, that it could be acquired from such agreeable surroundings, for instance, from the mountains, trees, and streams, 1 have ever found them interesting companions."
"I acknowledge," I said, "that variety in the physical features of the vicinity, together with its animals and birds, have on more than one occasion added lustre to, and prolonged, my moments of gladness; but what impressed me more deeply was that mute Nature appeared to sympathize with me in my distress, and in such a soothing manner as to relieve me, in a measure, of my burden."
"That she will do in the end," responded Al-
