de round the house
without dismounting, to care for my horse. As I passed the house, I saw
Gertrude standing at the door, and looking frightfully ill and pale. I
hurried to the stables, threw the saddle from my horse, and returned
instantly to the house. Gertrude met me at the door, threw herself into
my arms (a demonstration not habitual) and sobbed herself almost into
hysterics and insensibility. I succeeded in calming her a little, and
she then informed me of the cause of her behavior. She was frightened to
death at seeing me come on horseback; and the reason she gave for this
was that the night before she had dreamed that I came on horseback--that
her brother, a young man in mercantile business a few miles away, also
came on horseback (his usual habit)--and that while her brother and
myself were riding rapidly together, I was thrown and his horse dashed
out my brains with his hoofs!

"Here was a pleasant omen, or would have been to a believer in the
supernatural; but I belonged to the opposite extreme. I laughed at
Gertrude's fears, and finally succeeded in driving them away, though
with great difficulty, by the information that her brother had gone West
the day before and could not possibly be riding around in this section,
seeking my life with a horse-shoe. She was staggered but not
satisfied--I could see that fact in her eye. Still she shook off the
apparent feeling, and we joined the family. Half an hour after, her
brother rode up and stabled his horse--he having been accidentally
prevented leaving for the West as arranged. At this new confirmation of
her fears, very flattering to me but very inconvenient, Gertrude fell
into another fit of frightened hysterics; nothing being said to any of
the members of the family, however. I succeeded in chasing away this
second attack, with a few more kisses and a little less scolding than
before. With the lady again apparently pacified, we rejoined the
company, and the evening passed in music and conversation. The shadow
did not entirely leave the face of Gertrude, and she watched me
continually. For myself, I had no thought whatever on the subject,
except sorrow for her painful hallucination.

"At about ten o'clock, the brother rose to go for his horse, and I
accompanied him to look after mine but not to go home, for the
"courting" hours--the dearest of all--were yet to come. At the stable,
as he was mounting, we talked of the speed of his horse and of the one I
rode; and