stival progressed rapidly, but before the time came to
put the plans in execution a very terrible thing happened in Squantown.
Faces turned white, voices were hushed, work was suspended at the mill,
in the stores, and even upon farms. One home, where a loving mother
bowed in deepest agony, was shrouded in gloom, while others were filled
with the sympathy of mourning.

The Mountjoys first heard the news at Sunday-school, where Etta found
her class so full of the horror that they could attend to nothing else.
The stories of the girls were confused, and differed as to details, but
their teacher elicited from them the facts, which were as follows:--

Harry Pemberton, one of the best hands in the mill, one of the
pleasantest young fellows in Squantown, so the grown-up girls thought,
the very idol of the widowed mother who had only him, had gone out with
some companions on a Saturday night "spree" to a high cliff in the
neighborhood. They carried with them a barrel of beer and some bottles
of whiskey, of which, however, the others drank but little. A foolish
bet was made between him and one of the elder men, as to which could
drink the most "lager," and the others, soon tiring of the contest, left
the two with the bet still undecided. The sequel was involved in
mystery, for the other man, who was a stranger in the place, had
disappeared, and when the bright autumn sun shone out on Sunday morning,
it showed to the early passers-by the dead body of poor Harry, bruised,
broken, and disfigured, at the foot of the cliff. Whether the beer they
had taken made him and his companion quarrelsome and he was pushed over
in a fight, or whether Harry, stupefied, fell asleep on the edge and
rolled over in his unconsciousness, was never known. The boon companion
never came back to testify, and the coroner's jury brought in a verdict
of "accidentally killed."[2]

On Wednesday the mills were closed, that all might have an opportunity
of attending the funeral services, which were intensely solemn and
impressive. Harry had at one time been a member of Mr. James's
Bible-class, and during the recent religious interest his former teacher
and employer had more than once urged upon him to break away from the
evil companions and bad influences by which he had allowed himself to be
surrounded, and take his stand on the Lord's side, finding in the church
and its associations help to become a noble and good man. At one time he
had seemed to be almost p