s cabin.

On their way home the young people discussed the events of the
afternoon, dwelling on the meeting with Holden as on that which most
occupied their minds.

"It is with a painful interest," said Pownal, "that I meet the old
man, nor can I think of him without a feeling of more than common
regard. I am sure it is not merely because he was lately of so great
service to me, that I cannot listen to the tones of his voice without
emotion. There is in them a wild melancholy, like the sighing of the
wind through pine trees, that affects me more than I can describe."

"I know the feeling," said Faith. "There is to me also a strange
pathos in his voice that brings the tears sometimes into my eyes
before I am aware. What is the cause, I do not know. I never heard
it spoken of till now, and did not suppose there was another affected
like myself."

"You are a couple of romantic, silly things," cried Anne. "I flatter
myself there is some poetry in me, but it takes a different shape.
Now, when I see Father Holden, I begin to think of Jeremiah and
Zachariah, and all the old prophets, but with no disposition to cry."

"Tears were never meant to dim those blue eyes, dear Anne," said
Faith.

CHAPTER XVI.

_Dogberry_.--You are thought here to be the most senseless and
fit man for the constable of the watch; therefore, bear you
the lantern. This is your charge; you shall comprehend all
vagrom men.

MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING.

It may well be supposed that the misadventures on the ice were ill
calculated to soothe the excited mind of the constable. He bore a
grudge towards the Solitary before, for his failure and the beating
he had received at the island, and now to be made the object of such
abuse in the presence of his townsmen, and that on account of a person
whom he looked down upon as a sort of vagrant, was more than his
philosophy could bear. For Basset, with that kind of logic which is so
common with a certain class of people, could not avoid regarding the
Recluse as the culpable cause of his misfortune in both instances. "If
he hadn't gone agin the law," he said to himself, "I shouldn't have
tried to take him; and if I hadn't tried to take him, I shouldn't have
been treated so." Whatever Hedge or Mills may think of such logic, it
was satisfactory to Basset.

His lucubrations, moreover, were very different in the daytime from
those in the solemn shades of night. As ghosts are said to disa