"I shall teach my children and my grandchildren to be so proud of you--oh, so proud!--as proud as I am of you, little grandfather." "Gently, my darling," said the old man, as he placed carefully on the table the delicate piece of mechanism he held in his hand, and tenderly embraced the child.

"Kiss me once again, my pet, and then thou must go; thy little friends will be waiting." * * * * * As he said these words the mist slowly gathered, again before Griselda's eyes--the first of the cuckoo's pictures faded from her sight.
* * * * * When she looked again the scene was changed, but this time it was not a strange one, though Griselda had gazed at it for some moments before she recognized it.

It was the great saloon, but it looked very different from what she had ever seen it.

Forty years or so make a difference in rooms as well as in people! The faded yellow damask hangings were rich and brilliant.

There were bouquets of lovely flowers arranged about the tables; wax lights were sending out their brightness in every direction, and the room was filled with ladies and gentlemen in gay attire.
Among them, after a time, Griselda remarked two ladies, no longer very young, but still handsome and stately, and something whispered to her that they were her two aunts, Miss Grizzel and Miss Tabitha.
"Poor aunts!" she said softly to herself; "how old they have grown since then." But she did not long look at them; her attention was attracted by a much younger lady--a mere girl she seemed, but oh, so sweet and pretty! She was dancing with a gentleman whose eyes looked as if they saw no one else, and she herself seemed brimming over with youth and happiness.