From the upturned earth, where there ought to have been troops of strutting crows, a few sombre ravens rose.

But they could not rob the scene of its gayety; it smiled in the sunshine with colors which vividly followed the slope of the land till they were dimmed in the forests on the far-off mountains.
Nearer and farther, the cottages and villages shone in the valleys, or glimmered through the veils of the distant haze.

Over all breathed the keen pure air of the hills, with a sentiment of changeless eld, which charmed March, back to his boyhood, where he lost the sense of his wife's presence, and answered her vaguely.

She talked contentedly on in the monologue to which the wives of absent-minded men learn to resign themselves.

They were both roused from their vagary by the voice of General Triscoe.