278 I GO A- FISHING. 



reach out my arms to her, and I cry aloud on God to let 

 me go find her, and on her to come to me, and then thick 

 darkness settles on me. 



" The doctor calls this apoplexy, and says I shall some 

 day die in a fit of it. What do doctors know of the tre- 

 mendous influences that are working on our souls ? He, 

 in his scientific stupidity, calls it a disease, and warns me 

 against wine and high living, as if I did not understand 

 what it is, and why my vision at such times reaches so 

 very far into the deep unknown. 



" I have spoken of Tom Lewis, her cousin. Rumor 

 said he was the old man's heir in equal proportion with 

 the daughter ; for he had been brought up in the family, 

 and had always been treated as a son. He was a good 

 fellow, if he was rough, for he had the goodness that all 

 who came within her influence must have. 



" I have seen her look the devil out of him often. I 

 remember once when the horses had behaved in a way 

 not to suit him, and he had let an oath or two escape his 

 lips preparatory to putting on the whip. We were riding 

 together down the avenue, and he raised the lash. At 

 the moment he caught her eye. She was walking up 

 from the lodge, where she had been to see a sick child. 

 She saw the raised whip, and her eye caught his. He did 

 not strike. The horses escaped for that time. He drove 

 them quietly through the gate, and three miles and back 

 without a word of anger. 



"Did I tell you I was her cousin also? A second 

 cousin on her mother's side, not on the General's. We 

 lived not far off, and I lived much of my time at his house. 

 Tom and myself had been inseparable, and we did not 

 conceal our rivalry from each other. 



" ' Tom,' said I, one morning, ' why can't you be con- 



