memory of Fanny's ringing laugh, and the thought of the sunny
smile, with which I knew she would welcome me home again, cheered
me on my homeward voyage, when in the long night-watches I paced
the vessel's deck, while the stars looked coldly down upon me, and
there was no sound to break the deep stillness, save the heavy
swell of the sea. At the village inn where I stopped for a moment
ere going to my father's house, I first heard that her hand was
plighted to another, and in my wild frenzy, I swore that my rival,
whoever it might be, should die!

"It was my youngest brother--he, who, on the sad night when our
mother died, had laid his baby head upon my bosom, and wept
himself to sleep--he whose infant steps I had guided, bearing him
often in my arms, lest he should 'dash his foot against a stone.'
And _his_ life I had sworn to take, for had he not come
between me and the only object I had ever loved? There was no one
stirring about the house, for it was night, and the family had
retired. But the door was unfastened, and I knew the way upstairs.
I found him, as I had expected, in our old room, and all alone;
for Richard was away. Had he been there, it should make no
difference, I said, but he was absent, and John was calmly
sleeping with his face upturned to the soft moonlight which came
in through the open window. I had not seen him for two long years,
and now there was about him a look so much like that of my dead
mother when she lay in her coffin bed, that the demon in my heart
was softened, and I seemed to hear her dying words again, 'I can
trust you, Nathaniel; and to your protection, as to a second
mother, I commit my little boy.'

"The little boy, whose curls were golden then, was now a brown-