h,' I says; 'I'll wake you up when it's high tide,' I says; but
he only shook his head. So then, I says, 'Aint there none o' the folks
you can trust to watch?' And he shook his head, and so he moaned and
moaned.

"By and by, all of a sudden, 'Lihu looked up at me different, with his
eyes wide open, so that for a minute, I was most fool enough to think
'Lihu was gittin' well, and he smiled as though he wanted to say
something. So I leant over. 'I--know--somebody,' he says, as slow as
that, for he was all worn out. 'Who then, 'Lihu?' says I. 'Jesus,' says
he, with that queer, smilin' look, as though it was the naturalest thing
on earth. 'He'll--wake--me--up--when--', and he couldn't wait no longer,
his head fell over as heavy as a log, and that's the way he's been ever
since, sleepin' like death.

"Wall, Cinthy thinks somebody'd ought to come in and make a prayer. 'He
wasn't a perfessor,' says she. 'Lord knows, if he had a been,' says I,
'there'd be more need on't!' 'Anyway,' says I, 'he can't hear nothin', it
won't do him no harm.' So I thought I'd come out and see. It'll make
Cinthy feel easier."

There was a whispered consultation among the women, but Emily came over
to where I sat.

"Come, teacher," said she. "Your voice ain't as raspin' as some, and
you've got a knack o' stringin' words together, that sound likely, and
don't hit nobody--you come in."

"Hush!" I cried, grasping the woman's hand, thinking only, then, that it
would seem like sacrilege for any one to speak aloud in the room where
one was waiting for Christ to wake him. I had forgotten at that moment
that I was out of the habit of praying, even for myself. Emily's tale had
moved me so, it seemed only its sweet and fitting consummation, and
nothing incredible to my mind then, that Christ should come down out of
the starless sky to touch that heavy sleeper's brow.

It was finally decided that there should be a quiet little prayer-meeting
in the room where the women sat, in behalf of Mr. 'Lihu's soul; but
before all the preliminary steps had been taken, and the men and youth
noiselessly ingathered, Mr. 'Lihu's breathing had ceased, without a
parting pang or gasp, and the tide was at its full.

Harvey had been standing with a group near the door. Once at some
irrelevancy in the proceedings, while the women were organizing the
prayer-meeting, I heard his irrepressible little giggle creeping in; but
when the words so mysteriously uttered were passed out