At the thought, she felt a-cold and little and lost
in that great out-of-doors. The electric shock of the young sun-
beams and the unhuman beauty of the woods began to irk and daunt
her. The covert of the house, the decent privacy of rooms, the
swept and regulated fire, all that denotes or beautifies the home
life of man, began to draw her as with cords. The pillar of smoke
was now risen into some stream of moving air; it began to lean out
sideways in a pennon; and thereupon, as though the change had been a
summons, Seraphina plunged once more into the labyrinth of the wood.
She left day upon the high ground. In the lower groves there still
lingered the blue early twilight and the seizing freshness of the
dew. But here and there, above this field of shadow, the head of a
great out-spread pine was already glorious with day; and here and
there, through the breaches of the hills, the sun-beams made a great
and luminous entry. Here Seraphina hastened along forest paths.
She had lost sight of the pilot smoke, which blew another way, and
conducted herself in that great wilderness by the direction of the
sun. But presently fresh signs bespoke the neighbourhood of man;
felled trunks, white slivers from the axe, bundles of green boughs,
and stacks of firewood. These guided her forward; until she came
forth at last upon the clearing whence the smoke arose.
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