before us a dish of strawberries, the
first of the season.

"As I wanted to wash and freshen these, I begged the servant to go and
bring a pitcher of cold water."

"In about five minutes she returned, declaring that the well was dry.
She had lowered the pitcher to the full extent of the cord, and had
touched the bottom, but on drawing the pitcher up again, it was empty.
Mother Lecacheur, anxious to examine the thing for herself, went and
looked down the hole. She returned announcing that one could see
clearly something in the well, something altogether unusual. But this,
no doubt, was pottles of straw, which, out of spite, had been cast down
it by a neighbor.

"I wished also to look down the well, hoping to clear up the mystery,
and perched myself close to its brink. I perceived, indistinctly, a
white object. What could it be? I then conceived the idea of lowering a
lantern at the end of a cord. When I did so, the yellow flame danced on
the layers of stone and gradually became clearer. All four of us were
leaning over the opening, Sapeur and Celeste having now joined us. The
lantern rested on a black and white, indistinct mass, singular,
incomprehensible. Sapeur exclaimed:

"'It is a horse. I see the hoofs. It must have escaped from the meadow,
during the night, and fallen in headlong.'

"But, suddenly, a cold shiver attacked my spine, I first recognized a
foot, then a clothed limb; the body was entire, but the other limb had
disappeared under the water.

"I groaned and trembled so violently that the light of the lamp danced
hither and thither over the object, discovering a slipper.

"'It is a woman! who--who--can it be? It is Miss Harriet.'

"Sapeur alone did not manifest horror. He had witnessed many such
scenes in Africa.

"Mother Lecacheur and Celeste began to scream and to shriek, and ran
away.

"But it was necessary to recover the corpse of the dead. I attached the
boy securely by the loins to the end of the pulley-rope; then I lowered
him slowly, and watched him disappear in the darkness. In the one hand
he had a lantern, and held on to the rope with the other. Soon I
recognized his voice, which seemed to come from the center of the
earth, crying:

"'Stop.'

"I then saw him fish something out of the water. It was the other limb.
He bound the two feet together, and shouted anew:

"'Haul up.'

"I commenced to wind him up, but I felt my arms strain, my muscles
twitch, and was in terror lest I sh