Error was decked in a costly robe of satin of a lavender hue, to contrast with her gems; while Truth was arrayed in white, with a wreath of ivy on her brow, and the golden girdle around her waist which her father gave her at parting.  She wore no gems save an arrow of pearl which Astrea gave her when they parted at the gate of clouds, kept by the goddesses named the Seasons, which opened to permit the passage of the celestials to earth and to receive them on their return.

The simple dress and manners of Truth won the admiration of a few, while the majority paid tribute to Error, who kept her admirers listening to her wonderful adventures amid the region of the stars.  Truth spoke but seldom; but what she uttered was food for thought, instead of a constellation of merely dazzling words.

A careful observer might have seen that the elder members lingered, attracted by her simple charms, near Truth, as did also the youngest portion of the company, while youth and middle age could not divine her sphere of pure and earnest thought.  The few who sought her would gladly have continued the acquaintance, and they invited her to their dwellings; but on the morrow she would set forth on her journey, feeling that she had implanted in the minds of a few the love of something beyond externals and mere materialisms.

Her earthly mission was to traverse hill and plain throughout the land, and sow seeds of righteousness which would spring up in blossoms of pearl long after her weary feet had traversed other lands and sown again in the rough places the finer seeds.

At early dawn Truth went forth from the cottage and the kind woman who had sheltered her.  They had enjoyed much together in their mutual relation.  Trust met trust, hope clasped hope, and each was stronger for the soul exchange.

When the sun rose in the heavens Truth was on her way, while Error, tossed in feverish dreams upon her bed, thought the Sun was angry with her, and was sending his fierce rays upon her head to censure or madden her.  But he was only trying to waken her and urge her to go on with her sister.  A sense of relief came when she opened her eyes and found it was, after all, only a dream.  Yet the pleasure was brief; for a sharp pain shot through her temples, her brow was feverish, and her pulses throbbed wildly.  “Oh, for the pure air and the cool, refreshing grass!” she cried.  “Oh, better the highway with its friendly blossoms than this couch of down and this stifled atmosphere which I am breathing!” How she longed for Truth then, to cool her brow with the touch of her gentle hand.  “Come back, oh, come to me, Truth!” she cried, so hard that the whole household heard and came to her bedside.

“She is ill and delirious!” they cried in one voice.  The family physician was summoned, who pronounced the case fearful and her life fast ebbing.

“For whom shall we send?” said Mrs. Highbred, who was unused to scenes of distress and now longed to have her guest far from her dwelling.