y weak."

"I'll not excite him," answered the mother. "I'll not speak a word.
There, love"--and she laid her fingers softly upon the lips of her
son--"don't speak a single word."

For only a few moments did she sit with the quiet formality of a nurse,
who feels how much depends on the repose of her patient. Then she began
weeping, moaning, and wringing her hands.

"Mother!" The feeble voice of Willy stilled, instantly, the tempest of
feeling. "Mother, kiss me!"

She bent down and kissed him.

"Are you there, mother?" His eyes moved about, with a straining motion.

"Yes, love, here I am."

"I don't see you, mother. It's getting so dark. Oh, mother! mother!" he
shouted suddenly, starting up and throwing himself forward upon her
bosom--"save me! save me!"

How quickly did the mother clasp her arms around him--how eagerly did
she strain him to her bosom! The doctor, fearing the worst
consequences, now came forward, and endeavored to release the arms of
Mrs. Hammond, but she resisted every attempt to do so.

"I will save you, my son," she murmured in the ear of the young man.
"Your mother will protect you. Oh! if you had never left her side,
nothing on earth could have done you harm."

"He is dead!" I heard the doctor whisper; and a thrill of horror went
through me. The words reached the ears of Mr. Hammond, and his groan
was one of almost mortal agony.

"Who says he is dead?" came sharply from the lips of the mother, as she
pressed the form of her child back upon the bed from which he had
sprung to her arms, and looked wildly upon his face. One long scream of
horror told of her convictions, and she fell, lifeless, across the body
of her dead son!

All in the room believed that Mrs. Hammond had only fainted. But the
doctor's perplexed, troubled countenance, as he ordered her carried
into another apartment, and the ghastliness of her face when it was
upturned to the light, suggested to every one what proved to be true.
Even to her obscured perceptions, the consciousness that her son was
dead came with a terrible vividness--so terrible, that it extinguished
her life.

Like fire among dry stubble ran the news of this fearful event through
Cedarville. The whole town was wild with excitement. The prominent
fact, that Willy Hammond had been murdered by Green, whose real
profession was known by many, and now declared to all, was on every
tongue; but a hundred different and exaggerated stories as to the cause
and t