white things, that float about, they can not be birds, for they have no legs, and yet they seem to have feathers and wings. What a life of ignorance have I led, huddled up in this poor, little, dull place, visited only by a few, mean, thumdrum creatures, and never suspecting that the world contained finer things and grander company. 11. Till this unfortunate discovery, the little brook had been well enough satisfied with her condition; contented with the society of the beautiful and gentle creatures which frequented her retreat, and with the tender admiration of her own "bright unchanging star." But now, there was an end to all content, and no end to garrulous discontent and endless curiosity. The latter, she soon found means to satisfy, for the sky-lark brought her flaming accounts of the sun, at whose court he pretended to be a frequent visitor; and the water-wagtail was dispatched to ascertain the precise nature of those other mysterious objects, so bewildering to the limited +faculties of the curious little brook. 12. Back came the little messenger, mopping,* and mowing, and wagging his tail with the most fantastic airs of conceited importance. "Well, what is it?" quoth my lady brook. "Water upon my veracity," quoth Master Wagtail, "monstrous piece of water, five hundred thousand million times as big as your ladyship." "And what makes it so bright and glowing, instead of my dull color?" quoth my lady. "The sun, that shines full upon it," rejoins the envoy. How "Oh! that glorious globe, the sky-lark talks of. But what are delightful it must be to enjoy his notice! those fine creatures with legs, and those others with wings "Oh! those are cows, and and no legs?" and oxen, but you can not possibly comprehend their natures, never having seen any thing larger than a hare or wood-pigeon.” "How now, Master Malapert?" quoth my lady, nettled to the quick at his impertinence; but her curiosity was not half *satiated: so she was fain to gulp down her own insulted dignity, and went on questioning and cross-questioning, till she was ready to bubble over with spite and envy at Master Wagtail's wonderful relations. Poor thing! she did not know what allowance to make for travelers' stories. - *Making wry faces. geese; CLVII. THE BROOK AND STAR CONCLUDED. 1. THENCEFORWARD, the little brook *perfectly loathed her own peaceful, unobtrusive lot. She would have shrunk away, had it been possible, from the poor, innocent creatures, who had so long enlivened her pleasant solitude. And, worst of all, most unpardonable of all, she sickened at the sight of her benignant star, which continued to look down upon her as fondly and kindly as ever, still happily unconscious of her heartless estrangement. Well, she went on fretting and repining from day to day, till dame Nature, fairly tired out with her wayward humor, resolved to punish her, as she deserved, by granting her heart's desire. One summer morning, came two sturdy woodmen, armed with saws, axes, and bill-hook; to work they went, lopping, hewing, and clearing, and before night-fall, there lay the little brook, exposed to the broad canopy of Heaven, revealed in all its littleness, and effectually relieved from the intrusion of those insignificant creatures, which had been scared from their old familiar +haunt, by that day's truthless execution. 2. "Well!" quoth the little brook, "this is something like life. What a fine world this is! A little chilly, though, and I feel, I don't know how, quite dazzled and confounded. But to-morrow, when that great red orb comes over-head again, I shall be warm and comfortable enough, no doubt; and then, I dare say, some of those fine, great creatures will come and visit me; and who knows but I may grow as big as that great pond, in time, now that I enjoy the same advantages." Down went the sun; up rose the moon; out shone innumerable hosts of sparkling orbs, and among them, that "bright particular star" looked out, *pre-eminent in luster. Doubtless, its pure and radiant eye dwelt, with tender sorrow, on the altered condition of its beloved little brook. But that *volatile and inconstant creature, quite intoxicated with her change of fortune, and with the fancied admiration of the twinkling myriads she beheld, danced and dimpled, in the true spirit of flirtation, with every glittering spark, till she was quite bewildered among the multitude of her adorers, and welcomed the gray hour of dawn, without having †vouch safed so much as one glance of recognition at her old, tunalienated friend. 3. Down went the moon and stars; up rose the sun, and higher and higher he mounted in the cloudless heaven, and keener *waxed the impatience of the ambitious little brook. Never did court beauty so eagerly anticipate her first presentation to the eye of majesty! And, at last, arrived the hour of +fruition. Bright over-head careered the radiant orb; down darted his fervid, fiery beams vertically upon the center of the little brook, penetrating its shallow waters to the very pebbles beneath. At first, it was so awed and agitated, and overpowered by the condescending notice of majesty, fancying, (as small folks are apt to fancy,) that it had attracted peculiar observation, that it was hardly sensible of the unusual degree of warmth, which began to +pervade its elementary system: but presently, when the +fermentation of of its wits had a little subsided, it began to wonder how much hotter it should grow, still assuring itself that the sensation, though very novel, was exceedingly delightful. 4. But at length, such an *accession of fever came on, that the self-delusion was no longer practicable, and it began to hiss, as if set over a great furnace. Oh, what would the little brook have given now for only one bough of the holly or the hawthorn, to intercept those intolerable rays! or for the gentle winnowing of the black-bird's wing, or even the poor robin's, to fan its glowing bosom. But those protecting boughs lay scattered around; those small, shy creatures had sought out a distant refuge, and my lady brook had nothing left but to endure what she could not alter. "And, after all," quoth she, "'t is only for a little while; by and by, when his majesty only looks sidewise at me, I shall be less overcome with his royal favor, and in time, no doubt, be able to sustain his full gaze, without any of these unbecoming +flutters, all owing to my rustic education and the confined life I have hitherto led." 5. Well, "his majesty" withdrew westward as usual, and my lady brook began to subside into a comfortable degree of temperature, and to gaze about her again, with restored *complacency. What was her exaultation, when she beheld the whole train of geese waddling toward her from the great pond, taking that way homeward out of sheer curiosity, as I suppose. As the goodly company drew nearer and nearer, our brook admired the stateliness of their carriage, and persuaded herself, it was eminently graceful, "for undoubtedly, they are persons of distinguished rank," quoth she, "and how much finer voices they must have, than those little, vulgar fowls, whose twittering used to make me so nervous. Just then, the whole flock sat up such a gabbling and screeching, as they passed close by, that the little brook well nigh leaped out of her reservoir, with horror and amazement; and to complete her *consternation, one fat, old, dowager goose, struggling awkwardly out of the line of march, plumped right down into the middle of the pool, flouncing and floundering about at a terrible rate, filling its whole circumference with her ungainly person, and scrambling out again with an unfeeling *precipitation, which cruelly disordered the unhappy victim of her +barbarous outrage. 6. Hardly were they out of sight, those awkward and unmannerly creatures,—hardly had the poor little brook begun to breathe, after that terrible visitation, when all her powers of self-possession were called for, by the abrupt approach of another and more prodigious personage. A huge ox, goaded by the intolerable stinging of a gad-fly, broke away from his fellows of the herd and from his cool station in the great pond, and came galloping down, in his blind agony, lashing the air with his tail, and making the vale echo with his furious bellowing. To the woods just beyond the new cleared spot, he took his frantic course, and, the little brook lying in his way, he splashed into it and out of it without ceremony, or probably so much as heeding the hapless object, subjected to his ruffian treatment. That one splash pretty nearly tannihilated the miserable little brook. The huge fore-hoofs forced themselves into its mossy bank; the hind ones, with a single extricating plunge, pounded bank and brook together into a muddy hole; and the tail, with one insolent whisk, spattered half the black mass over the surrounding herbage. 7. And now, what was wanting to complete the ruin and degradation of the unhappy little brook? A thick, black puddle was all that remained of the once pellucid pool. Poor little brook! if it had erred greatly, was it not greatly humbled? Night came again; but darkness was on the face of the unhappy brook, and well for it, that it was total darkness; for in that state of conscious degradation, how could it have sustained the searching gaze of its pure, forsaken star? Long, dark, and companionless was the first night of misery, and when morning dawned, though the turbid water had regained a degree of transparency, it had shrunk away to a tenth part of its former "fair proportions," so much had it lost by tevaporation in that fierce solar talembic; so much from +absorption in the loosened and choking soil of its once firm and beautiful margin; and so much by dispersion, from the wasteful thavoc of its destructive invaders. 8. Again, the great sun looked down upon it; again, the vertical beams drank fiercely of its shrunken water; and when evening came, no more remained of the poor little brook, than just so many drops as filled the hollow of one of those large pebbles which had paved its unsullied basin, in the day of its brightness and beauty. But never, in the season of its brightest *plentitude, was the water of the little brook so clear, so perfectly clear and pure, as that last portion, which lay, like a liquid gem, in the small concave of that polished stone. It had been filtered from every grosser particle, refined by rough discipline, purified by adversity, even from those lees of vanity and light-mindedness, which had adulterated its sparkling waters in their prosperous state. Just as the last sun-beam was withdrawing its amber light from that small pool, the old, familiar robin hopped on the edge of the hollow pebble, and dipping his beak once and again in the diminished +fount, which had slaked his thirst so often and so long, drooped his russet wings with a slight quivering motion, and broke forth into a short, sweet gush of parting song, before he winged his way forever from his expiring benefactress. 9. Twilight had melted into night, dark night, for neither moon nor stars were visible through the dark clouds that *canopied the earth. In darkness and silence lay the little brook; forgotten it seemed, even by its benignant star, as though its last drops were exhaled into nothingness, its languishing existence already struck out of the list of created things. Time had been, when such apparent neglect would |