CHAPTER III.
_Speculative remarks with which the reader may or may not agree--An old woman--Hopes and wishes commingled with hard facts--The dog Crusoe's education begun_.
It is pleasant to look upon a serene, quiet, humble face.

On such a face did Richard Varley look every night when he entered his mother's cottage.

Mrs.Varley was a widow, and she had followed the fortunes of her brother, Daniel Hood, ever since the death of her husband.

Love for her only brother induced her to forsake the peaceful village of Maryland and enter upon the wild life of a backwoods settlement.
Dick's mother was thin, and old, and wrinkled, but her face was stamped with a species of beauty which _never_ fades--the beauty of a loving look.

Ah! the brow of snow and the peach-bloom cheek may snare the heart of man for a time, but the _loving look_ alone can forge that adamantine chain that time, age, eternity shall never break.
Mistake us not, reader, and bear with us if we attempt to analyze this look which characterized Mrs.Varley.A rare diamond is worth stopping to glance at, even when one is in a hurry.