sand and polished pebble; then it loitered 

 in the shadow of a great rock and became 

 a. deep, silent pool, full of shadows and the 

 mysteries which lurk in such remote and 

 dusky places. 



It was beside such a pool that I paused 

 at last, and seated myself with infinite 

 content. Before me the glen narrowed 

 into a rocky chasm, over which the ad- 

 venturous trees that clung to the precipitous 

 hillsides spread a dense roof of foliage. 

 The dark pool at my feet was full of 

 mysterious shadows and seemed to cover 

 epochs of buried history. As I studied its 

 motionless surface the old mediaeval legends . 

 of black, fathomless pools came back to 

 me, and 1 felt the air of enchantment 

 stealing over me, lulling my latter-day 

 scepticism into sleep, and making all mys- 

 teries rational and all marvels probable. 

 In these silent depths no magical art had 

 ever submerged cities or castles; on the 

 stillest of all quiet afternoons no muffled 

 echoes, faint and far, float up through the 

 waveless waters. But who knows what 

 78 



