ept on again, swifter than before. Every true
Wallencamper could both see and hear the "white horse" when, at night,
clearly outlined against the sky, he galloped back and forth along the
very summit of the hill.

It was on one of the blackest nights of the season that the fuel, which
less grand and poetic souls would doubtless have reserved for another
winter's use, was borne in jubilant triumph by the Wallencampers up the
sides of this sacred and illustrious steep, and there consumed in a most
glorious conflagration. The spectacle was appalling. At intervals in the
roaring and crackling of the flames was heard the roar of the near ocean,
while the familiar features of the landscape and the faces of the
encircling spectators, stood out with unreal and terrible distinctness in
the hellish light.

Emily, who had coughed all the way climbing up the hill, stood stirring
the fire with a long pole, and making reckless and facetious remarks the
while, which, uttered in the midst of that unearthly scene, struck me
cold with horror.

"Come, Bachelder," said she; "git onto the end of my pole, and I'll hold
ye over there a while. Ye might as well be gittin' used to it!"

"Heh! yes," said Bachelor Lot. "But what I'm a thinkin' is, you'd ought
to have a subordinate. I never heered--heh!--of putting a person of such
importance in the Kingdom--heh!--however efficient--into the position of
Fire Tender!"

"Crazy Silvy" was at the bonfire. I had never seen her before. Silvy did
not go out on ordinary occasions. I watched her as she stood with a
scant, thin shawl thrown over her head, looking intently into the flames,
shivering often, and smiling as she moved her lips in apparently
delightful conversation with herself.

Some of the children essayed to tease her; she seemed quite unconscious
of their efforts, but I turned and spoke to them rather sharply. The next
time I looked up, her strange, smiling eyes were fixed full on my face.
I glanced away quickly, with a nervous shiver, and moved a little farther
off. As I did so, Silvy, regarding me in that same dreamily contemplative
manner, walked toward me a step or two, and as I continued to move away,
she walked slowly after me.

My acquaintance with the unconfined insane had not been extensive enough
to allow me to regard her motions with that mingled amusement and
curiosity, which was the only sentiment expressed on the countenances of
the Wallencampers who stood watching us; bu