he replied, energetically, seizing the
Bible with a spasmodic grasp--closing it--throwing it to the back of
the bed--then falling in an instant into a state of real dejection,
with his arms folded over his breast, and his eyes cast down.

"Grief often produces these gloomy thoughts," said I; "but they are
the mere fancies of a sick mind--generated in sorrow, and dying with
the time-subdued cause that produces them. There is not a bereaved
husband, wife, parent, or child in the land, that does not, in the
first struggle with a new grief, entertain and cherish, for passing
moments of agony, such sick fancies of rebelling nature. You have not
yet given time and your energies a fair trial. You must have
patience."

"There is some consolation in that," he replied. "I am glad when I
think that the thought that haunts and alarms me is no sae dangerous
as it sometimes appears to me. This book (sweet comforter!) tells me
that Tobit prayed to be dissolved, and become earth, because o' his
sorrow. It tells me, also, that Job, in his agonies, cried, 'My soul
chooseth strangling and death rather than life.' My experience o' the
ills o' life (and a man o' sixty-five must have some portion o' that)
informs me o' the truth o' what you have told me, that an
extraordinary burden o' grief often wrings frae the sick soul a wish
to dee and be at rest. But oh! I fear my situation is different. I hae
_mair_ than a wish to be dissolved; for sure none o' my brethren in
sorrow"--here his voice fell almost to a whisper, and tears rolled
down his cheek--"ever lay wi' the like o' that"--holding up a
razor--"under his sick pillow."

I was alarmed, being utterly unprepared for this exhibition.

"You need be under nae alarm," he continued, wiping the tears from his
eyes. "My courage is not yet strong enough. God be praised for it!
Moments o' fearfu fortitude sometimes come owre me, and I have held
that instrument in my clenched hand--ay, within an inch o' my bared
throat; but the resolution passes as quickly as it comes, and terror,
cowardice, and a shiverin cauld--dreadfu to suffer--come in their
place. Lay it past, sir--lay it past."

I obeyed; and, as I proceeded to place the instrument on the top of a
chest of drawers, I heard the noise of some one in the passage, with
suppressed ejaculations of--"O God! O God!"

"I wadna hae shown you that," he continued, as I sat down, "but that
it is my wish to tell you the warst; for nae man can expect