in a deep sleep, her head pillowed on her
arm, the tear-drops glittering on her cheeks. Cramped as she was, the
unconscious grace of childhood lent a charm to her position, and her
sable dress, contrasting with the pallor of her complexion, appealed for
compassion and sympathy. The teacher's heart smote him for the coercion
he had used.

"I will not disturb her now," thought he; "she is sleeping so sweetly. I
will take her out when school is dismissed. I think she will remember
this lesson."

Suffering the lid to fall noiselessly on the book, he resumed his tasks,
which were not closed till the last beams of the wintry sun glimmered on
the landscape. The days were now very short, and in his enthusiastic
devotion to his duties, the shades of twilight often gathered around him
unawares.

It was his custom to dismiss his scholars one by one, beginning with the
largest, and winding up with the smallest. It was one of his rules that
they should go directly home, without lingering to play round the door
of the school-house, and they knew the Mede and Persian character of his
laws too well to disobey them. When Mittie went out, making a demure
curtsey at the door, she lingered a little longer than usual, supposing
he would release Helen from her prison house; but Master Hightower was
one of the most absent men in the world, and he had forgotten the
little prisoner in her quiet nest.

"Well," thought Mittie, "I suppose he is going to keep her a while
longer, and she can go home very well without me. I am going to stay all
night with Cherry-cheeks, and if Miss Thusa makes a fuss about her
darling, I shall not be there to hear it."

Master Hightower generally lingered behind his pupils to see that all
was safe, the fire extinguished in the stove, the windows fastened down,
and the shutters next to the street closed. After attending deliberately
to these things, he took down his hat and cloak, drew on his warm woolen
gloves, went out, and locked the door. It was so late that lights were
beginning to gleam through the blinds of many a dwelling-house as he
walked along.

In the meantime, Helen slumbered, unconscious of the solitude in which
she was plunged. When she awoke, she found herself in utter darkness,
and in stillness so deep, it was more appalling than the darkness. She
knew not at first where she was. When she attempted to move, her limbs
ached from their long constraint, and the arm that supported her head
was fa