52 THE ELFIN EXILE. 



Weeks passed on ; the long voyage was ended, and the term 

 of Mimosa's imprisonment at length was fulfilled. One evening 

 she felt the gradual unclosing of the leaf which had been her 

 cell, and beneath the broad light of a clear winter's moon, Mi- 

 mosa suddenly found herself once more at liberty. But how 

 strange was the scene into which she now emerged ! Instead 

 of the fairy dell and charmed ring, upon which she had last 

 looked, she now found herself in a large but close apartment, 

 where books and music, needlework and flowers were gath- 

 ered together by feminine taste. A bright fire blazed in the 

 ample hearth, and as Mimosa peered out of the casement 

 which admitted the frosty moonlight, she perceived that a man- 

 tle of snow covered the green earth. Forlorn and disconsolate, 

 the poor fairy felt as if she had gained little by exchanging a nar- 

 row cell for a wider and more desolate prison. So she returned 

 to her primrose leaf and crept once more into its covert with a 

 sensation of utter despair. 



But the cheerful tenderness of the gentle creature soon found 

 a ministry with which to solace her weary hours. The vase of 

 English flowers had been placed amid many rich and rare ex- 

 otics which graced the lady's chamber, and Mimosa soon dis- 

 covered that the delicate strangers were pining in the close at- 

 mosphere. To freshen their drooping hearts by her sweet 

 breath, to revive their fading blossoms by her dewy touch, and 

 to give them back the glory of their summer prime by her 

 kindly influences, became now her duty and her delight. Thus 

 did the elfin exile pass the long and dreary winter, until the 

 genial airs of spring had unlocked the frozen earth, and given 



