es to move. At last I was nigh
blind. I struck against one tree and another till I fell to the ground.
How long I lay there I can't tell; but when I came to I was on the sand,
the sun blazing hot upon me and my skin scorched up. I was so stiff and
ached so, I could hardly stand upright. I didn't feel or think anything
after this; and hardly knew where I was till somebody came and touched
me, and asked me whether I was walking in my sleep; and I looked up and
found myself close home.

"The boys began to gather round me as if I were something strange; and
when I looked at them they would move back from me. 'What have you been
doing, Abel?' one of them asked me at last. 'No good, I warrant you,'
answered another, who stood back of me. And when I turned around to
speak to him he drew behind the others, as if afraid I should harm
him;--and I was too weak and frightened to hurt a fly. 'See his hands;
they are stained all over.'--'And there's a crow's egg, as I'm alive!'
said another. 'And the crow is the Devil's bird, Tom, isn't it?' asked a
little boy. 'O Abel, you've been to that wood and made yourself over to
Him.'--They moved off one after another, every now and then turning
round and looking at me as if I were cursed. After this they would not
speak to me nor come nigh me. I heard people talking, and saw them going
about, but not one of them all could I speak to, or get to come near me;
it was dreadful, being so alone! I met a boy that used to be with me all
day long; and I begged him not to go off from me so, and to stop, if it
were only for a moment. 'You played with me once,' said I; 'and won't
you do so much as look at me, or ask me how I am, when I am so weak and
ill too?' He began to hang back a little, and I thought from his face
that he pitied me. I could have cried for joy, and was going up to him,
but he turned away. I called out after him, telling him that I would not
so much as touch him with my finger, or come any nearer to him, if he
would only stop and speak one word to me; but he went away shaking his
head, and muttering something, I hardly knew what,--how that I did not
belong to them, but was the Evil One's now. I sat down on a stone and
cried, and wished that I was dead; for I couldn't help it, though it was
wicked in me to do so."

"And is there no one," asked Paul, "who will notice you or speak to you?
Do you live so alone now?" It made his heart ache to look down upon the
pining, forlorn creature b