LITTLE ELSIE. BY JENNY MARSH PARKER, WHITHER going, little ELSIE? Since the morn-break you've been romping And now down the mountain path-way Comes your father with the men; First of all, he 'll ask for ELSIE What shall mother tell him then You may tell him that I only Have gone up the mountain side, Where they say the fairies hide; Don't go now to look for DAISY, No, no, mother! I will hasten Misses me from near his chair: And look up the mountain path-way, DAISY! DAISY! are you climbing DAISY! DAISY! will you ever Down the valley? tell me, HENRIC: And the sky looks black and grim! Hasten, ALERT! for the thunder Mutters o'er the mountain's peak, And the hemlocks swing their branches, And dark omens seem to speak. I will follow after ALERT: Why need I to fear the storm? What could keep my bosom warm? Zelda. MASSACHUSETTS COLONY. A TALE OF THE CHAPTER THIRD. THE CONVENTICLE. ONLY a year before the events related in preceding chapters, Sir Henry, just returned from a tour on the continent, wearied of old forms of worship and government, had adopted the Puritan faith. Youth is ever prone to extremes of belief, and the new convert, despite his father's wrath and his king's displeasure, frequented assemblies of Covenanters, even when, driven by Cavaliers from all public haunts, they held their meetings in hollows of the rocks. Still his religion was only of the head; his heart had never humbled itself to the child-like docility, expressly enjoined upon followers of his sect; neither did he place implicit confidence in the tenets it presented for his acceptance. While his mind was yet inquiring after truth, the Quakers began to promulgate their sentiments, and, nothing daunted by the opprobrium heaped on them, the youthful heir of Ludlow Castle resolved to judge for himself of their wonderful illuminations. They were even more despised than the Round-heads, considered out-casts from society, and hunted to the death by reckless troops of Royalists. Sir Henry, obtaining audience of a chief man among these religionists, gained knowledge of their secret place of worship among remote ledges along the wild coast of Dorsetshire, to be approached by a somewhat painful journey on foot. But in those times, when fires of holy zeal burned high, the arduous access only heaped fuel upon flames already kindled in many hearts; so that within the self-hewn chapel old and young presented themselves - the more aged borne over rocks (thus they averred in their out-pourings') by an invisible power, which enabled them to scale perpendicular heights sans fatigue, and descend into abysses without sense of dizziness. Thither Sir Henry directed his steps, just as streams and meadows were donning night-robes of mist, for these people dared congregate only under cover of darkness. He had but a dim idea of what he sought, nor would have been surprised to hear ravings meaningless as those within the precincts of a mad-house. He paused on the height above their rendezvous, struck by the picturesque scene, albeit unused to meditate the handiwork of a divine ARCHITECT. Before him spread the British Channel, whose far-away waters kissed the border of the sky and cooled the tired |