32 VOICES FEOM THE WOODLANDS. 



green turf like a young fawn in his native glades. Neither 

 want nor sorrow had visited her father's cottage, since 

 ^Elfreda shed the gladness of her spirit on that home ; and 

 often, in the stillness of a summer's evening, did the mother 

 and her fair-haired child sit beside the lake, to watch the 

 dripping and the flashing of the father's oars, as he 

 skimmed right merrily towards them, over the deep blue 

 waters. 



Sounds were heard one day, as of hasty steps, coming in 

 swiftness and in fear ; and presently a company of fugitives 

 told, with breathless haste, that the cruel Danes had fired 

 the old monastery of Avondale, and were making their way 

 towards the ferry. They counselled Osmund to secrete his 

 wife and daughter, lest the spoilers should take them cap- 

 tive, and the mother and her child be sold into distant 

 slavery, for such was the custom of those fierce men. 



Osmund heard them, and his heart failed with fear ; for 

 the country, though thickly wooded, afforded neither caves 

 nor coverts, wherein to find a hiding-place. Suddenly a 



