"He stood and measured the earth: and the everlasting mountains were
scattered, the perpetual hills--"

The sudden, almost simultaneous report of two pistol-shots rang out
sharply on the cool, calm air, and startled the child so violently
that she sprang forward and dropped the bucket. The sound of voices
reached her from the thick wood bordering the path, and, without
reflection, she followed the dog, who bounded off toward the point
whence it issued. Upon the verge of the forest she paused, and,
looking down a dewy green glade where the rising sun darted the
earliest arrowy rays, beheld a spectacle which burned itself
indelibly upon her memory. A group of five gentlemen stood beneath
the dripping chestnut and sweet-gum arches; one leaned against the
trunk of a tree, two were conversing eagerly in undertones, and two
faced each other fifteen paces apart, with pistols in their hands.
Ere she could comprehend the scene, the brief conference ended, the
seconds resumed their places to witness another fire, and like the
peal of a trumpet echoed the words:

"Fire! One!--two!--three!"

The flash and ringing report mingled with the command and one of the
principals threw up his arm and fell. When with horror in her wide-
strained eyes and pallor on her lips, the child staggered to the
spot, and looked on the prostrate form, he was dead. The hazel eyes
stared blankly at the sky, and the hue of life and exuberant health
still glowed on the full cheek; but the ball had entered the heart,
and the warm blood, bubbling from his breast, dripped on the
glistening grass. The surgeon who knelt beside him took the pistol