One thing certainly the fair young bride brought to the cottage, along with her accomplishments—viz., a large trunk, filled with the most beautiful and tasteful dresses which fashion could invent—laces, handkerchiefs of gossamer texture, gloves the most delicate, fairy slippers, brooches, bracelets, rings, shawls, mantles, not omitting a twenty dollar hat, with bridal veil of corresponding value. Such was the _trousseau_ of the young physician’s wife! Anna herself had no idea that such costly and fanciful articles were not perfectly proper for her new sphere, and if her mother thought otherwise, as most probably she did, her desire to impress the “_country people_” with a sense of her daughter’s importance, and of the great condescension it must have been on her part to marry a country doctor, overcame her better judgment. CHAPTER II. “Look, my dearest Anna, yonder is our pleasant little village!” exclaimed Rupert, pointing as he spoke to a cluster of pretty houses, nestling far down in the green valley below, now for the first time visible as the carriage gained the summit of a hill, while here and there the eye caught bright glimpses of a lovely stream winding along the luxuriant landscape. “What an enchanting spot!” cried Anna, pressing the hand of her husband to her lips—“how romantic!” “It is indeed lovely, Anna—but remember ‘’tis distance lends enchantment;’ a nearer view may destroy some of its present beauty,” said Rupert. “Yet it will be lovely still, dear Rupert, for our home is there!” exclaimed Anna. No wonder the heart of the happy husband bounded with delight at such words from such beautiful lips! “Now you can discern the church through those venerable elms, which were planted by hands long since mouldering in the dust,” said Rupert. “And see, dear Anna, as we draw nearer, how one by one the cottages look out from their leafy screens, as if to welcome you.” “O it is all perfectly charming, Rupert! Now which of these pretty dwellings is to be our abode?” inquired Anna. “Just where the river bends around yonder beautiful green promontory; do you see two large trees whose interlacing branches form as it were an arbor for the little cottage reposing in the centre? There, my beloved Anna, there is your future home!” “O it is a perfect beauty spot—how happy, how very happy we shall be!” exclaimed Anna with enthusiasm. “May your bright anticipations, my dear one, be realized,” said Rupert. “Sure I am that if the tenderness and devotion of a fond heart can secure you happiness, it will be yours—yet as on the sunniest skies clouds will sometimes gather, even so may it be with us, and our brilliant horizon be darkened.” “No, no, talk not so gravely, Rupert,” cried Anna, “depend upon it, no clouds but the most rosy shall flit o’er our horizon! But do order the coachman to drive faster—I am impatient to assume the command of yonder little paradise.”