at time, I unhappily and foolishly thought to be no more "than
sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal?"

This, then, was not to be thought of or endured; and, therefore,
sooner than remain inactive among my people, I was ever, as much as
possible, studiously at a distance. Still it could not but annoy me,
should my presence have been required on any emergency, while absent;
and this, thanks to my fortune, never occurred, though I had many
narrow escapes of it.

At one time, having postponed the preparation of my sermon during the
earlier part of the week, I arrived, in consequence, at my lodgings on
Saturday evening, in order to get it ready for the morrow. I had
scarcely begun, when Maria, dispensing with her lowly knock for
admission at the door, rushed in, and announced an event which had
just occurred within a mile of the house.

A girl of eighteen, and her sister of eight years old, had been
spending her birth-day at their grandfather's, and, after dark, had
set out on their return to their father's house, mounted on an old
horse, with the younger girl behind. In the bottom of a valley which
divided the two houses, ran a little stream, but which now, from
heavy rain, had increased to a rapid and deep, though still a narrow
rivulet. In passing through the ford, the younger girl, while raising
her feet to avoid the water, fell from the saddle, pulling her elder
sister with her. The youngest, much frightened, rushed through the
water and gained the bank. The foot of the elder one became entangled
in the stirrup, which unfortunately caused her head and shoulders to
remain beneath the water. The horse was so quiet as to stand still in
the stream, grazing on the bank, and was thus stationary long enough
for the girl to become insensible, when he walked out, and her foot,
on his moving, becoming once more free, her helpless little sister, by
the light of the moon which was then shining, could just see the
stream roll away the body of her sister towards a deep hole a little
lower down, when she lost sight of her. This, then, was the cause of
the present interruption.

On arriving at the spot, it was distressing to observe the
insignificancy of the place, with regard to such a melancholy event.
The water where she had fallen, was not more than two feet in depth,
and while searching for her body during the night, at any place I was
able to jump across the stream. Yet, singular to state, we never found
the body till the co