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CHAPTER II.
CHILDHOOD.
"With hand and fancy active ever—
Devising, doing, striving still;
Defeated oft—despairing never,
Upspringiug strong in hope and will."
But time rolled on in its resistless
course; the night, the storm, and
the winter had passed gradually
away; and little Alice, whose impressible
temperament was like an air-harp,
which lends a responsive vibration to every
varying breeze that may sweep across it—now
swelling out gayly and cheerily as a
marriage-bell, now sinking to the minor
chords of wailing and sadness—had passed
from gloom to gladness. As in the storm
and darkness she had been nervously depressed
and miserable, so in due proportion
did her elastic and buoyant young spirit
rise to the full enjoyment of brighter days
