bank, tired with the
weight, put down the corpse near where Armstrong stood. He walked up
to it, and gazed upon the face. The men, solemnized by the mournful
task, and respecting the feelings of Armstrong, whom they all knew,
preserved silence.

There was no expression of pain upon the features. They wore the calm,
impassive look of marble. The eyes and mouth were wide open--efforts
to close them had been in vain--but, there was no speculation in the
former, and the soul played no more around the latter. The long brown
hair, from which the water dripped, hung in disorder over the forehead
and down the neck. Armstrong knelt on the withered leaves, by the side
of the corpse, and parted the hair with his fingers.

"The agony," he said, as if addressing the drowned man, "is over. The
curtain is lifted. The terrible secret is disclosed. You have heard
the summons we must all hear. You have trod the path we must all
tread. You know your doom. Poor fellow! how gladly would I give my
life for yours."

The bystanders were moved. Thus to behold the rich and prosperous
Mr. Armstrong, whose reserve was mistaken by some for haughtiness,
kneeling on the ground and lamenting over the obscure fisherman, was
something they had not expected.

"Sill was a good fellow and a ginerous," said Tom Gladding, wiping
away a tear, with the rough sleeve of his coat.

"He was a clever fellow, was Sill," added another.

"I've known him more than once," said Tom, "give half his fish away to
a poor family. Josiah tried to make everybody comfortable."

"When I was sick, a year ago," said one of the men, "and the neighbors
thought I was going to die, Josiah set up many a night with me, when
he had to work all the next day for his wife and children. I had no
notion, then, he'd have to go afore me."

"It's true what the primer says," said another--

"Xerxes the great must die,
And so must you and I."

"It don't need the primer or Xerxes either to tell us that," said Tom.
"Now, it looks kind o' hard to have a young man like Josiah go; but,
seeing as how he must die, sometime or other, I guess it don't much
consarn him whether it's to-day or to-morrow, when you think of
etarnity. Howsoever, it's no use standing here sniveling; so, let's
get on. Miss Sill will be glad the body's found, though it will 'most
kill her to see it."

Thereupon, Tom and his friends took up the corpse, and pursued their
way to the village.

Armstrong stood still,