30 BERTHA. 



after wildflowers, many an aimless ramble in the forest glades, 

 many a scramble after mountain berries and frost grapes had 

 given joy to Bertha's heart, and health to her elastic frame. 

 But in all these frolic wanderings, she was always entrusted to 

 the care of one, whose distant relationship, (for he was a sort 

 of second cousin,) whose worthy parentage, (for he was the 

 only son of the ' Dominie,') and above all whose superior age 

 and prudence, rendered him a most proper guardian for the 

 merry heedless child. 



Elbert Von L * * * * was a student both from love of knowl- 

 edge and from ambition. He had early resolved to win a 

 name that should not die, and all his energies from his very 

 boyhood had been devoted to this end. But his was no cold 

 passionless desii-e of aggrandizement. Every man must set 

 before him some prize in life ; there must be some fixed aim, 

 or existence becomes a series of vain experiments and tran- 

 sient pursuits. Therefore had Elbert determined to pursue 

 fame, as the most ennobling of all motives for thought and 

 action, which can present itself to the fancy of an ardent boy. 

 The occasional presence of a being like Bertha was as a 

 gleam of childhood's sunniness to the abstracted student, and 

 he was never happier than when he was holding her hand, 

 while she climbed the mountain side, or bearing her delicate 

 form in his arms across the swollen and angry brook. 



Every morning, as the sun rose, Elbert might be seen alone 

 among the foldings of the hills, or threading the labyrinths of 

 the forests ; and every morning, during the season of blossoms, 



