It had been
recommended by its sequestered situation, its luxuriant verdure, and
profound quiet. On one side was a potato-field, on the other a
_melon-patch_; and before me, in rows, some hundreds of apple-trees.
Here I was accustomed to seek the benefits of contemplation and study
the manuscripts of Lodi. A few months had passed since I had last
visited this spot. What revolutions had since occurred, and how gloomily
contrasted was my present purpose with what had formerly led me hither!

In this spot I had hastily determined to dig the grave of Susan. The
grave was dug. All that I desired was a cavity of sufficient dimensions
to receive her. This being made, I returned to the house, lifted the
corpse in my arms, and bore it without delay to the spot. Caleb, seated
in the kitchen, and Eliza, asleep in her chamber, were wholly unapprized
of my motions. The grave was covered, the spade reposited under the
shed, and my seat by the kitchen-fire resumed in a time apparently too
short for so solemn and momentous a transaction.

I look back upon this incident with emotions not easily described. It
seems as if I acted with too much precipitation; as if insensibility,
and not reason, had occasioned that clearness of conceptions, and
bestowed that firmness of muscles, which I then experienced. I neither
trembled nor wavered in my purpose. I bore in my arms the being whom I
had known and loved, through the whistling gale and intense darkness of
a winter's night; I heaped earth upon her limbs, and covered them from
human observation, without fluctuations or tremors, though not without
feelings that were awful and sublime.

Perhaps some part of my steadfastness was owing to my late experience,
and some minds may be more easily inured to perilous emergencies than
others. If reason acquires strength only by the diminution of
sensibility, perhaps it is just for sensibility to be diminished.

CHAPTER XXXI.

The safety of Eliza was the object that now occupied my cares. To have
slept, after her example, had been most proper; but my uncertainty with
regard to her fate, and my desire to conduct her to some other home,
kept my thoughts in perpetual motion. I waited with impatience till she
should awake and allow me to consult with her on plans for futurity.

Her sleep terminated not till the next day had arisen. Having recovered
the remembrance of what had lately happened, she inquired for her
sister. She wanted to view once