Page 103 [103]
OCR
WHE CASTLE OF: LIFE of woods, waters, and a sky more beautiful than anything of which he had ever dreamed. " Have you always done your duty?" said the voice, in a harsher tone. “Alas! no,” replied Graceful, falling on his knees; "but when I have failed I have been punished by my remorse even more than by the hard trials through which.I have passed. Forgive me, and punish me as I deserve, if I have not yet expiated all my faults; but save her whom I love— save my grandmother.”’ The door instantly opened wide, though Graceful saw no one. Intoxicated with joy, he entered a courtyard surrounded with arbors embowered in foliage, with a fountain in the midst, spouting from a tuft of flowers larger, more beautiful, and more fragrant than any he had seen onearth. By the side of the spring stood a woman dressed in white, of noble bearing, and seemingly not more than forty years old. She advanced to meet Graceful, and smiled on him so sweetly that the child felt himself touched to the heart, and his eyes filled with tears. " Dont you know me?" said the woman. “Oh, grandmother! is it you?" he exclaimed. "How came you In the Castle of Life?" " My child," said she, pressing him to her heart, “He who brought me here is an enchanter more powerful than the fairies of the woods and the waters. I shall never bh
