forsook her whilom haunts about the spring and forest, and started
up in terror at every sudden sound; while from each opening between
the chestnut trees the hazel eyes of the dead man, and the wan, thin
face of the golden-haired wife, looked out beseechingly at her.
Frequently, in the warm light of day, ere shadows stalked to and fro
in the thick woods, she would steal, with an apronful of wild
flowers, to the solitary grave, scatter her treasures in the rank
grass that waved above it, and hurry away with hushed breath and
quivering limbs. Summer waned, autumn passed, and winter came, but
the girl recovered in no degree from the shock which had cut short
her chant of praise on that bloody June day. In her morning visit to
the spring, she had stumbled upon a monster which custom had adopted
and petted--which the passions and sin fulness of men had adroitly
draped and fondled, and called Honorable Satisfaction; but her pure,
unperverted, Ithuriel nature pierced the conventional mask,
recognized the loathsome lineaments of crime, and recoiled in horror
and amazement, wondering at the wickedness of her race and the
forbearance of outraged Jehovah. Innocent childhood had for the
first time stood face to face with Sin and Death, and could not
forget the vision.

Edna Earl had lost both her parents before she was old enough to
remember either. Her mother was the only daughter of Aaron Hunt, the
village blacksmith, and her father, who was an intelligent,
promising young carpenter, accidentally fell from the roof of the
house which he was shingling, and died from the injuries sustained.
Thus Mr. Hunt, who had been a widower for nearly ten years, found
himself burdened with the care of an infant only six months old. His
daughter had never left him, and after her death the loneliness of
the house oppressed him painfully, and for the sake of his