Two or three stools; a couple of
pots; a few shelves, supported on pegs driven into the peat wall;
about a bushel of raw potatoes lying in a corner; a small heap of damp
turf--for the foregoing summer had been so incessantly wet, that the
turf, unless when very early cut, could not be saved; a few wooden
noggins and dishes; together with a bundle of straw, covered up in a
corner with the sick man's coat, which, when shaken out at night, was
a bed; and those, with the exception of their own simple domestic truth
and affection, were their only riches. The floor, too, as is not unusual
in such mountain cabins, was nothing but the natural peat, and so
damp and soft was it, that in wet weather the marks of their feet were
visibly impressed on it at every step. With the exception of liberty to
go and come, pure air, and the light of the blessed day, they might as
well have dragged out their existence in a subterraneous keep belonging
to some tyrannical old baron of the feudal ages.

There was one small apartment in this cabin, but what it contained,
if it did contain anything, could not readily be seen, for the hole or
window, which in summer admitted the light, was now filled with rags
to keep out the cold. From this little room, however, the priest as he
entered, was surprised to see a young man come forth, apparently much
moved by some object which he had seen in it.

"Mr. Harman," said the priest, a good deal surprised, "who could have
expected to find you here?"

They shook hands as he spoke, each casting his eyes upon this woeful
scene of misery. "God pity them," ejaculated the priest, clasping his
hands, and looking upwards, "and sustain them!"

"I owe it to poor Raymond, here," replied the other, "and I feel obliged
to him; but," said he, taking Father Roche over to the door, "here will
be a double death--father and son."

"Father and son, how is that?--she mentioned nothing of the son."

"It is very possible," said Harman, "that they are not conscious of his
danger. I fear, however, that the poor boy has not many hours to live."

All that we have just described, occurred in three minutes; but short
as was the time, the wife's impatience to have the rites of the church
administered, could scarcely be restrained; nor was poor Raymond's
anxiety much less.

"They're comin'," said he, "Mr. Harman, they are comin'; hurry, hurry, I
know what they'll do."

"Who are coming, Raymond?" asked Harman. "Oh!" said the foo