342 WILD SCENES AND WILD HUNTERS. 



She fell back upon her pillow, and, as I started to my feet, 

 a strange, dull cry came from the husband ! 



She was dead ! I turned my head in horror from the 

 realization of the scene, and there was Tom, crouching close 

 beside me, with his eyes rolled up in such an expression of 

 horror and sympathy, that I was even more profoundly moved. 

 He had evidently crept in, and been listening to everything 

 she said ! 



Poor Tom ! He buried this strange woman with many 

 tears, and then we took the old man back to the Planter's 

 house, with all his wheels and models ; but he soon fell into 

 idiocy, and died not long after, leaving his life's labor in the 

 hands of strangers, to come to nothing ! as all attempts must 

 do at asserting the prerogative of Divinity Himself whose 

 life is the only perpetual motion that can exist in the Universe ! 

 Here was a sad and stern first lesson of the presumption 

 which goeth aside in the confidence of its own strength to 

 search after the " strange gods," yet, alas, it was in vain 

 for me, as I only came forth from this experience a more 

 cold and impious doubter. 



