Page:The New-Year's Bargain (1884).djvu/242

bondage, moved slowly from the harbor, upon the slope of a snow-covered hill beneath which she passed, amid the nodding pines which crowned the top, a group of figures suddenly appeared. They were the twelve Months come to wave farewell to the children. There was January, disdainful as ever; sweet, rosy June; February, his honest nose reddened by the keen wind; May and April, clasping each other's waists like a pair of school-girls. When they saw Max and Thekla on the deck, a little chorus of laughter, exclamation, and "Good-bys" could be heard. Thekla caught the sound of March's wild "Ha! ha!" the rich voice of September; April's gleeful laugh, as she flung a handful of violets at the ship, and her sob when they fell, as of course they did, into the water, and were borne out to sea. A moment,—no more. The children had time for only one glad smile of recognition, before the vision vanished and was gone. And no one else on the deck observed any thing but the sun dancing on the snow, the dark evergreens, and a few tossing leaves of