1. Reveries in the Country.

It was a day in January. The desultory snow-flakes were skudding here and there and a white mantle was becoming visible on the fence tops and pine trees, and as I gazed dreamily from the window of my study I heard the church bell in the belfry of the village church peal out its glad tidings of love; and as its decadence faded away, a thought peaceful and quiet captured my soul,—it seemed as if the reverberating voice of the holy bell had told me a story—a secret of happiness and peace.