on me--here--here--"

A heavy sigh, and a shudder that shook his whole frame, followed these
words.

"They told me I wasn't to see you once again," said he, as a sickly
smile played over his mouth; "but I knew you'd come to sit by me. It
's a lonely thing not to have one's own at such an hour as this. Don't
weep, my dear, my own heart's failing me fast."

A broken, muttering sound followed, and then he said, in a loud voice;
"I never did it! it was Tony Basset. He told me,--he persuaded me. Ah!
that was a sore day when I listened to him. Who 's to tell me I 'm not
to be master of my own estate? Turn them adrift,--ay, every man of them.
I 'll weed the ground of such wretches,--eh, Tony? Did any one say
Freney's mother was dead? they may wake her at the cross roads, if they
like. Poor old Molly! I 'm sorry for her, too. She nursed me and my
sister that's gone; and maybe her deathbed, poor as she was, was
easier than mine will be,--without kith or kin, child or friend. Oh,
George!--and I that doted on you with all my heart! Whose hand's this?
Ah, I forgot; my darling boy, it's you. Come to me here, my child! Was
n't it for you that I toiled and scraped this many a year? Wasn't it for
you that I did all this? and--God, forgive me!--maybe it 's my soul
that I 've perilled to leave you a rich man. Where 's Tom? where 's that
fellow now?"

"Here, sir!" said I, squeezing his hand, and pressing it to my lips.

He sprang up at the words, and sat up in his bed, his eyes dilated to
their widest, and his pale lips parted asunder.

"Where?" cried he, as he felt me over with his thin fingers, and drew me
towards him.

"Here, father, here!"

"And is this Tom?" said he, as his voice fell into a low, hollow sound;
and then added: "Where's George? answer me at once. Oh, I see it! He
isn't here; he would n't come over to see his old father. Tony! Tony
Basset, I say!" shouted the sick man, in a voice that roused the
sleepers, and brought them to his bedside, "open that window there. Let
me look out,--do it as I bid you,--open it wide. Turn in all the cattle
you can find on the road. Do you hear me, Tony? Drive them in from every
side. Finnerty, I say, mind my words; for" (here he uttered a most awful
and terrific oath), "as I linger on this side of the grave, I 'll not
leave him a blade of grass I can take from him."

His chest heaved with a convulsive spasm; his face became pale as death;
his eyes fixed; he clutched eagerly at t