s the track led. At sight of the water a
new though undefined hope sprang up in me. The stream looked everywhere
deep, and was full to the brim, but nowhere more than a few yards wide.
A bluish mist rose from it, vanishing as it rose. On the opposite side,
in the plentiful grass, many small animals were feeding. Apparently they
slept in the forest, and in the morning sought the plain, swimming the
river to reach it. I knelt and would have drunk, but the water was hot,
and had a strange metallic taste.

I leapt to my feet: here was the warmth I sought--the first necessity of
life! I sped back to my helpless charge.

Without well considering my solitude, no one will understand what seemed
to lie for me in the redemption of this woman from death. "Prove what
she may," I thought with myself, "I shall at least be lonely no more!" I
had found myself such poor company that now first I seemed to know what
hope was. This blessed water would expel the cold death, and drown my
desolation!

I bore her to the stream. Tall as she was, I found her marvellously
light, her bones were so delicate, and so little covered them. I grew
yet more hopeful when I found her so far from stiff that I could carry
her on one arm, like a sleeping child, leaning against my shoulder. I
went softly, dreading even the wind of my motion, and glad there was no
other.

The water was too hot to lay her at once in it: the shock might scare
from her the yet fluttering life! I laid her on the bank, and dipping
one of my garments, began to bathe the pitiful form. So wasted was it
that, save from the plentifulness and blackness of the hair, it was
impossible even to conjecture whether she was young or old. Her eyelids
were just not shut, which made her look dead the more: there was a crack
in the clouds of her night, at which no sun shone through!

The longer I went on bathing the poor bones, the less grew my hope that
they would ever again be clothed with strength, that ever those eyelids
would lift, and a soul look out; still I kept bathing continuously,
allowing no part time to grow cold while I bathed another; and gradually
the body became so much warmer, that at last I ventured to submerge it:
I got into the stream and drew it in, holding the face above the water,
and letting the swift, steady current flow all about the rest. I noted,
but was able to conclude nothing from the fact, that, for all the heat,
the shut hand never relaxed its hold.

After ab