On the whole, we spent a very interesting morning, and, after partaking of refreshments, we left, having inquired after Count D’Orsay, whom we learned was then on a trip to earth. Bidding adieu to the Countess and her friends, we started for the celebrated island called the “Golden Nest,” which lies in a south-westerly direction from the Countess’s villa.
After having travelled some hours in our own diligence (i.e., driven through the air by our own will), moving along quite leisurely that we might survey the country beneath us, we reached a group of beautiful lakes, reminding me strongly in size and appearance of lakes Erie, Huron, Michigan, and Superior, the famed lakes of my own native clime.
In the centre of the largest of these lakes lay the island we were seeking. We descended like skilful aeronauts into the centre of a group of happy children, who were playing like little fairies amid the flowers blooming profusely everywhere.
Singling out two of the prettiest, we addressed them.
Directly a merry band gathered about us, answering our questions intelligently and skipping before us to lead the way to the “Golden Nest,” as the superb structure was called in which these little soul-birds were sheltered.
Everywhere, as we advanced, our eyes lit upon pretty bands of children; some swinging in the tree-boughs like birds, some waltzing in the air, others sitting upon the green, chattering and singing, filling the surrounding air with their melody.
Certainly it was a most enlivening sight to witness their enjoyment. After having amused ourselves for a while with their gambols, we turned our steps toward the Home.
The building was oval in form, and composed of a golden fleecy incrustation from which it derived it, name. Within, the “Nest” was like Aladdin’s palace.
Innumerable compartments, hung with silks and tissues of tender and. harmonious colors, and decorated with birds’ plumage of varied hues, arrested the eye. These spacious alcoves were each furnished with a domed skylight, adorned with hanging tassels and glittering ornaments. Ladies were busy in nearly all of these compartments in instructing children under their care.
In some that I entered I was shown new-born babes not an hour old, torn from their mothers’ bosoms on earth, and lying upon fleecy pillows, attended by lovely women, who looked the angels which they were.