Chapter 14 - Page 2

Nell, "ever since you found me, I have been
as happy as I can possibly be. You have been teaching me.
Why is that not enough? What am I going up there for?"

Harry looked at her in silence. Nell was giving utterance to nearly
his own thoughts.

"My child," said James Starr, "I can well understand the
hesitation you feel; but it will be good for you to go with us.
Those who love you are taking you, and they will bring you back again.
Afterwards you will be free, if you wish it, to continue your life
in the coal mine, like old

Simon, and Madge, and Harry. But at least you ought to be able to compare
what you give up with what you choose, then decide freely. Come!"

"Come, dear Nell!" cried Harry.

"Harry, I am willing to follow you," replied the maiden.
At nine o'clock the last train through the tunnel started
to convey Nell and her companions to the surface of the earth.
Twenty minutes later they alighted on the platform where the branch
line to New Aberfoyle joins the railway from Dumbarton to Stirling.

The night was already dark. From the horizon to the zenith,
light vapory clouds hurried through the upper air, driven by
a refreshing northwesterly breeze. The day had been lovely;
the night promised to be so likewise.

On reaching Stirling, Nell and her friends, quitting the train,
left the station immediately. Just before them, between high trees,
they could see a road which led to the banks of the river Forth.

The first physical impression on the girl was the purity of the air
inhaled eagerly by her lungs.

"Breathe it freely, Nell," said James Starr; "it is fragrant
with all the scents of the open country."

"What is all that smoke passing over our heads?" inquired Nell.

"Those are clouds," answered Harry, "blown along by the westerly wind."

"Ah!" said Nell, "how I should like to feel myself carried
along in that silent whirl! And what are those shining sparks
which glance here and there between rents in the clouds?"

"Those are the stars I have told you about, Nell. So many suns they are,
so many centers of worlds like our own, most likely."

The constellations became more clearly visible as the wind
cleared the clouds from the deep blue of the firmament.
Nell gazed upon the myriad stars which sparkled overhead.
"But how is it," she said at length, "that if these are suns,
my eyes can endure their brightness?"

"My child," replied James Starr, "they are indeed suns, but suns
at an enormous distance. The nearest of these millions of stars,
whose rays can reach us, is Vega, that star in Lyra which you
observe near the zenith, and that is

fifty thousand millions of leagues distant.
Its brightness,