the stains were on her hands,
where she felt them as she clasped her long thin fingers convulsively
and wondered if she were going mad.

Her father was very quiet now; he was falling asleep, and sinking on
her knees beside the bed, the wretched woman moaned piteously:

"Oh, my Father in heaven, how long must I bear this burden which
to-night presses so heavily? Help me, help me, for I am so weak and sad.
Thou knowest I was innocent, and I have tried so hard to do right. If I
have failed--if I ought to have spoken in spite of the vow, forgive me,
for if my sin is great, great, too, has been my punishment.

"I cannot stay here," she thought, as she rose from her knees. "The room
is full of phantoms which gibber at me from the dark corners, and shout
the word in my ears as I shouted it that awful night when Rover kept me
company. Poor old Rover, lying under the snow. If he were only here I
should not be quite so desolate. I believe that for the first time in my
life I am a coward," and shaking with cold, or fear, or both, Hannah
left her father's room and went into the kitchen, where Sam was stuffing
the stove with wood.

The moment she appeared, however, he withdrew the stick he was crowding
in, and began to close some of the draughts. But she said to him:

"Don't do that, Sam. Let it burn; put on more. I am very cold. And light
a candle, Sam; three candles! It is so dark here, and the wind howls so.
Does it say anything to you, Sam? Any word, I mean?"

Sam had no idea what she meant, nor, indeed, did he think if she meant
any thing, for his wits came slowly. People called him stupid, and this
was his greatest recommendation to Hannah, who could not have had a
bright, quick-seeing boy in her household.

Sam suited her, and his answer to her question was characteristic of
him.

"No, I don't hear nothin' it says, only it screams like a panther in a
fit," and Sam deliberately lighted the three candles, and placed them on
the table, while Hannah drew a hard wooden chair to the stove, and
putting her feet upon the hearth, clasped her hands around her knees,
and sat there till she was thoroughly warm, and her nerves were quieted.

She was not afraid now, and taking one of the candles she went to her
father's room and found him sleeping, with a calm, peaceful expression
on his face, and another look, too, which made her heart stand still a
moment, for she felt intuitively that the black shadow of death had
crept into t