a cart containing a boy and girl, whom I vainly entreated to give me a
ride. I told them the painful circumstances which induced me to solicit
their aid; but the boy was over-cautious, and the girl unusually hard-
hearted for one of her kind and compassionate sex. I could easily have
compelled them to give me a seat, but for a sense of moral justice
which would not permit me to take that by force which they denied to
pity. Mr boyish indignation, I recollect, was so great that I could
scarcely help throwing stones after my unkind fellow-travellers.

It was evening by the time I reached Darlington Mills, and I was still
five miles from my father-in-law's house. It was quite dark, and I was
so overpowered with my fifty miles' walk, that to proceed without
refreshment and rest appeared then to be impossible. I stopped at the
tavern and asked for some tea.

I had scarcely been seated two minutes before some men entered, in
whose conversation I became immediately and deeply interested. They
were discussing what to them was merely local news, but the question,
"When is the funeral to take place?" riveted my attention at once.

Putting down the much-needed but untasted refreshment, I demanded of
the speaker "Whose funeral?" My heart at once foretold from its inmost
depths what the dreaded answer would be.

Yes, she in whom I had placed my earthly hopes of a life-long happiness
was, indeed, no more. She was snatched away in the bright morning of
her existence with the rapturous feelings of maternity just budding
into life. I never knew how I got out of the house, or in what manner I
performed the last five miles of the journey. But I remember that in
the excitement of that hour I felt neither hunger, thirst, nor