confident no sound would have penetrated to my
consciousness. And it was evident that I was thoroughly imposed upon
by it, for when the small, irregular pond was reached, which, with a
cypress-scattered hillock, occupies the highest point of the main hill
to the westward, I halted a moment and considered. How, thought I,
will this unseen attendant cross a piece of water? Throwing off my
shoes I waded over a shallow arm of the pond, and sat down to watch.
Presently in the twilight two wedges of ruffled water were discerned
advancing swiftly across the surface,--just such tracks as serpents
make in swimming,--a light touch was heard on the bank, and all was
still. But then a sudden disgust, unreasoning and childish, mastered
me completely; a wave of doubt greater than before filled me with
disdain of my own imbecility, and I hastened through the orchard to my
home, and flung myself into an arm-chair near the window.

The place I had selected long ago as a quiet refuge was a low veranda
farm-house, hidden away from north winds under the crest of a hill,
and crept over by many rods of honey-suckle. Events had so affected me
that I considered nothing left in life but an alternation of hard work
and of utter retreat from humanity, and had disposed me favorably
toward the ancient apple orchard, and the meagre vegetable and flower
garden, which alone remained of a former farm. The barns, the plowed
lands, and the fences had disappeared. Only a heavy stone wall with
flagged top, which protected the garden from the road, reminded one of
a former powerful owner. From the veranda no house was visible; the
eye had to travel many miles across the flat lower country to the bay
before the distant ships recalled a busy world.

Here, beside myself, lived no one save Rachel, a woman whose Indian
origin made it impossible to guess her age. Although she claimed for
herself the purest descent from an Indian tribe of a headland a
hundred miles to the eastward, and although her features were not
without strong marks of her claim, yet in strict truth she was so much
mixed with African blood that with most persons she would pass for a
negress. Rachel had a talent for cooking breakfasts and suppers from
little apparent supply; she was taciturn to speechlessness, hence our
intercourse was never marred by discord; and while her box was kept
supplied with strong tobacco, a slender meal of some kind was never
wanting; and it was served in silence.