d after an interval shut again, while I distinctly could catch
the old hag's voice saying, "It 's all dark without; there 's no use
'trying '!" a low whining sound followed; and then I heard the old woman
slowly descending the stairs, and, by the motion of her hand along the
wall, I conjectured that she had no light.

She stopped as she came to the door, and seemed to listen to the
long-drawn breathing of the sleepers; and then she pushed open the
door and entered. With a strange dread of what this might mean, I still
resolved to let the event take its course; and, feigning deepest sleep,
I lay back against the wall and watched her well.

Guiding herself along by the wall, she advanced slowly, halting every
second or third step to listen,--a strange precaution, since her own
asthmatic breathing was enough to mask all other sounds. At last she
neared the grate; and then her thin and cord-like fingers passed from
the wall, to rest upon my head. It was with a kind of thrill I felt
them; for I perceived by the touch that she did not know on what her
hand was placed. She knelt down now, close beside me, and, stooping
over, stirred the embers with her fingers till she discovered some faint
resemblance to fire, amid the dark ashes. To brighten this into flame,
she blew upon it for several minutes, and, even taking the live embers
in her hands, tried in every way to kindle them.

With a patience that seemed untirable, she continued at this for a long
time; now selecting from the hearth some new material to work upon, and
now abandoning it for another; till, when I had almost grown drowsy in
watching this monotonous process, a thin bright light sprung up, and I
saw that she had lighted a little piece of candle that she held in her
hand. I think even now I have her before me, as, crouched down upon her
knees, and sheltering the candle from the current air of the room, she
took a stealthy, but searching, glance at the figures, who, in every
attitude of weariness, were sleeping heavily around.

It was not without a great effort that she regained her feet, for she
was very old and infirm; and now she retraced her steps cautiously as
she came,--stooping at intervals to listen, and then resuming her way
as before. I watched her till she passed out; and then, as I heard her
first heavy footstep on the stair, I slipped off my shoes and followed
her.

My mind throughout the whole of that night had been kept in a state of
tension tha