172 BERTHA'S VISIT TO HER 



June 1st. You may remember, mamma, how 

 much I was interested, last year, by my uncle's 

 illustrations of the Mirage and the Fata Mor- 

 gana. The subject was often afterwards alluded 

 to in conversation ; and my aunt having inci- 

 dentally mentioned it to her charming corre- 

 spondent in Upper Canada, I was this afternoon 

 agreeably surprised by her reading aloud the 

 following passage in a letter which she had just 

 opened : 



" Your young friend Bertha will be pleased 

 to hear that last June I witnessed something 

 very like that curious phenomenon which you 

 say interested her so much. One morning I 

 awoke just at the break of day, and accidentally 

 directing my eyes to the window, which has a 

 southern aspect, I was astonished to see 

 instead of the black monotonous forest by 

 which we are surrounded a wide, magnificent 

 sheet of water, connected with a spacious river 

 winding to a great distance, and confined by 

 gentle slopes and grassy banks ; and all this so 

 distinct that the bright fresh green of the young 

 leaves was beautifully contrasted with the dark 

 foliage of the pine woods. 



>( I rubbed my eyes, and looked again for 

 it appeared to be exactly our lake near Peter- 

 borough, with the Otanabee River winding to- 

 wards Rice Lake, except that the whole view 

 was reversed. I wondered how all this could 



