y gazing straight before him at the heap of
ashes, which gave forth a dull glow, just sufficient at times to show
the curled-up form of the great dog, and beyond him, rolled up like a
mummy and perfectly still, Abel, just as he had last seen him before he
closed his eyes. It was so dark that he could not see Tregelly, and he
lay trying in vain to make him out.

His head was dull and confused, as if he had slept for a great length of
time, and his thoughts would not run straight; but every train of
thought he started darted off into some side track which he could not
follow, and he always had to come back to where he had made his start.

There it was--some time ago, when they had piled up the fire to a great
height so that it might burn long and well while they all sank
painlessly and without more trouble into the sleep of death.

And now by slow degrees he began to grasp what seemed to be the fact,
that while his companions, even the dog, had passed away, he was once
more unfortunate, and had come back, as it were, to life, to go alone
through more misery, weariness, and despair.

He shivered, and strangely inconsistent worldly thoughts began to crawl
in upon him. He felt he must thrust the unburned pieces of pine-wood
closer together, so that they might catch fire and burn and radiate some
more heat. It was so dark, too, that he shuddered, and then lay staring
at the perpendicular wall beyond the fire--the wall that looked so icy
and cruel over-night, but now dim, black, and heavy, as if about to lean
over and crush them all out of sight.

Yes, he ought, he knew, to thrust the unburned embers together and put
on more wood, so as to make a cheerful blaze; but he had not the energy
to stir. He wanted another rug over him; but to get it he would have
had to crawl to the sledge, and he was too much numbed to move.
Besides, he shuddered at the idea of casting a bright light upon his
surroundings, for he felt that it would only reveal the features of his
poor comrades hardened into death.

And so it was that he lay for long enough in the darkness, till the numb
sensation began to give way to acute pain, which made him moan with
anguish and mentally ask what he had done that he should have been
chosen to remain there and go through all that horror and despair again.

The natural self is stronger than the educated man in times of crisis.
A despairing wretch tells himself that all is over, and plunges into a
river or