A HUMAN HEART. 273 



spot ; it was a hut, and at once he was relieved from his embarrass- 

 ment. He called loudly several times, but without meeting with 

 response, so at length he pushed gently against the door, which at a 

 second effort opened, and he saw what appeared to him a figure 

 over a table asleep. Obeying a first impulse, he entered the hut and 

 with that fearless frankness which so peculiarly and beautifully cha. 

 racterises the innocence of childhood, approached and took the 

 figure by the hand, but no sooner had he done so than he let it fall 

 it was so terrifically cold ! 



Upon this he hastily emerged from the hut, and without account- 

 ing for it, felt an intolerable horror even of the face of the hovel, and 

 he ran from it as speedily as he could. 



In the meanwhile, his absence from home became a source of 

 alarm, and a party of us volunteered our services in his pursuit. His 

 usual haunts were familiar to us, and we ascended this steep and 

 came down that descent penetrated to the bosom of the most silent 

 valleys, and paced the dark margins of innumerable lakes con- 

 suming the hours of the longest mid-summer day in a fruitless search, 

 when from an assemblage of craggy heights, his delicate form in the 

 duskiness of the increasing twilight struck our observation, and 

 hence to our satisfaction, we were enabled without delay to convey 

 the young tenant to the arms of his distractedly awaiting mother. 



The words with which he greeted us were the hut and its sleeping- 

 inhabitant. He spoke, could speak of nothing besides the subject 

 engrossed his thoughts : day and night he seemed inspired with 

 haunted by it. 



We laughed and flung jibes, but to no avail, he would not relin- 

 quish but even clung to his account with augmented pertinacity. 

 Then, what we commenced by pronouncing incredible, we concluded 

 by deeming strange, or at least, resolving to put its verisimilitude to 

 the test. In furtherance of the project we embarked on an exploring 

 expedition ; the child of course being our escort guide. For hours 

 we perforated pathway after pathway among the rocks, dells, &c. 

 but to no purpose. We espied no hut was visible. We renewed 

 the laugh again, the youthful Columbus incurred our utmost sar- 

 casm. However, he was not thus to be disconcerted, and he entreated 

 us for the fewest steps for a step but one step more on. His own, 

 glance was the quickest, and he first descried and pointed out to us 

 in exultation the hut. We were all stimulated to arrive at it, and 

 like birds attracted as to a common centre by a particular instance 

 of prey, in irregular flights we came up to it. 



Precisely as the child recounted in an attitude apparently of 

 sleep, a figure leaning over a table was there. The form was a 

 woman's form, attired in black to the heart motionless dead ! 

 We gazed at the figure, then at each other,- then at the figure again, 

 and we gazed because we had ceased had found it impossible to 

 speak. For some minutes we stood congealed ! 



When our first horror subsided we pursued a closer inquisition. 

 Raising for a moment, we supported the drooping head, and scruti- 

 nized its facial lineaments. They were aged evidently stamped 

 with the finger of age, but of the most noble contour and beauteous 



