"My sudden appearance startled some poor wretch, who was crouched
there, making his preparations for eternity, just as I myself was about
to do. He gave me one scared look, as if he feared I was some one come
to stop him, and jumped into the water. In his sudden leap one foot
dragged after him the little pile of clothing and the letter he had
been writing.

"I crouched down into a hiding-place, so startled by this sudden
apparition, in the very act of doing what I had made up my mind to do,
that I drew back from the deed with sudden awe and shrinking. I had no
time to think before my pursuer dashed up, calling my name loudly. He
had seen the suicide and thought it was I. He waited about and watched
for the body a while and then went away, and that was the last I ever
saw of him.

"When I crawled out of my hiding-place I had no idea what I was going
to do. The suicidal impulse had spent itself, and although I had
escaped from my pursuer for the moment I was so afraid of meeting him
again that I slunk along like a criminal. But strong as that fear was,
I would rather have met him than faced my father. Soon I came to a
wharf where a steamer was taking aboard passengers for California. At
once my determination was made. I hurried to a pawnbroker's shop, and
from my watch and what little jewelry I had I realized enough money to
buy a steerage ticket, and in a few hours was on my way, under a new
name.

"The Boston papers which the next San Francisco steamer brought told me
the story of my suicide, of the recovery of my body, and of its burial
in our family lot in Mt. Auburn Cemetery. I hope the poor wretch whose