en I arose, and placed the old man
in his coffin. I sat down beside it, and as I looked at the calm, cold
features I could not help reflecting that even he had not been more an
outcast from his fellows than I was myself. If fate had cast _his_ lot
in the solitude of this dreary region, he was not more alone in the
world than _I_, who had neither home nor family. How strange was it,
too, that it should have devolved upon _me_ to pay him these last rites.
No, no; this could not be accident. The longer I dwelt upon this theme,
the more strongly was I impressed by this one conviction; and now,
looking back, after the lapse of years, that feeling is but more
confirmed by time.

Taking the shovel and the pick, I set forth to dig the grave, the
poor dog following at my heels, as though knowing in what cause I was
laboring. The earth was hard and stony, so that at first I made but
little progress; but soon I reached a clayey soft soil, which again was
succeeded by a dense, firm stratum of stones, impacted closely together,
like a pavement made by hands; indeed, it was difficult to conceive it
otherwise, the stones being so nearly of the same size, and laid down
with a regularity so striking and purposelike. I proceeded to loosen
them with the barreta, but, to my surprise, no sooner had I displaced
this layer than another exactly similar displayed itself underneath. If
this be "Nature's handiwork," thought I, "it is the strangest thing I
ever saw." I labored hard to remove this second tier, and now came down
upon a light gravelly soil, into which the barreta passed easily. Shall
I own that it was with a sense of disappointment that I perceived this?
It was not that my expectations had taken any distinct or palpable form,
but their vagueness somehow had not excluded hope!

As I struck down the iron barreta into the light earth, I sat down and
fell into a musing fit, from which the dog aroused me by licking
my hands and looking up into my face, as though reproaching me for
deserting my task. I arose at once, and set to work in right earnest.
The grave was now full five feet in depth, and needed only to be made a
little longer. It was after about an hour's hard labor, and my task
was all but completed, when the barreta struck a stone which it was
requisite to move; it was a large and heavy one, and much more firmly
impacted in the earth than I at first supposed, and it was only by
splintering it with the iron "crow" that I was abl