Mr.

"Benjamin
flowers and fed her gulls as usual, but she no longer talked to them or told them
stories. In the evenings they all sat around the hearth, and sometimes the little
maiden sang; Waring had taught her new songs. She knew the sonnets now, and
chanted them around the castle to tunes of her own; Shakespeare wood not
have known his stately measures, dancing along to her rippling melodies The
black face of Orange shone and simmered with glee; she nodded perpetually,
and crooned and laughed to herself over her tasks by the hour together,-- low
chuckling laugh of exceeding content. And did Waring ever stop to think? I know
not. If he did, he forgot the thoughts when Silver came and sat by him in the
evening with the light of the hearth-fire shining over her. He scarcely saw her at
other times, except on her balcony, or at her flower window as he came and
went in has boat below; but in the evenings she sat beside him in her low chair, and
laid sometimes her rose leaf palm in his rough brown hand, or her pretty head
against has arm. Old Fog sat by always; but he said little, and his face was shaded
by his hand. The early autumn gales swept over the hikes, leaving wreck and
disaster behind, but the crew of the castle stayed safely at home and listened to
the tempest costly, while the flowers boomed on, and the gulls brought all their
relations and colonized the balcony and window sills, fed daily by the fair hand of
Silver And Waring went not. Then the frosts came, and turned the forests into
splendor; they rowed over and brought out branches, and Silver decked the long
room with scarlet and gold. And Waring went not. The dreary November rains
began, the leaves fall, and the dark water surged heavily; but a store of wood was
piled on the flat roof, and the fire on the hearth blazed high. And still Waring went
not. At last the first ice appeared, thin flakes forming around the log foundations
of the castle; then old Fog spoke. 'I am quite well now, quite strong again; you
must go to-day, or you will find yourself frozen in here. As it is, you may hit a late
|vessel off the islands that will carry you below. I will sale over with you, and bring
back the boat.' 'But you are not strong enough yet,' said Waring, bending over
his work, a shelf he was carving for Silver; 'I cannot go and leave you here alone '
'It is either go now, or stay all winter You do not, I presume, intend to make Silver
your wife,--Silver, the daughter of Fog the wrecker.' Waring's hands stopped;