226 The Countess Itha

hollow of the rock. In marshy places she
gathered the thick spongy mosses, yellow
and red, and dried them in the sun for
warmth at night in the cold weather. She
lived on roots and berries, acorns and nuts
and wild fruit, and these in their time of
plenty she stored against the winter. Birds’
eggs she found in the spring; in due season
the hinds, with their young, came to her and
gave her milk for many days; the wild bees
provided her with honey. With slow and
painful toil she wove the cotton-grass and
the fibres of the bark of the birch, so that
she should not lack for clothing.

In the warm summer months there was a
great tranquillity and hushed joy in this hard
life. A tender magic breathed in the colour
and music of the forest, in its long pauses
of windless day-dreaming, in its breezy frolic
with the sunshine. The trees and boulders
were kindly; and the turf reminded her of
her mother’s bosom.. About her refuge the
wild flowers grew in plenty— primrose and
blue gentian, yellow cinquefoil and pink
geranium, and forget-me-nots, and many
more, and these looked up at her with the
happy faces of little children who were inno-