tens and wide-brimmed hat.

"What time do you conceive it to be?" asked the man, depositing his long
staff in a corner, and approaching the glowing fire.

"Past midnight, I would suppose," answered the boy, piling up a quantity
of books that were scattered over a small table, and with which he had
been occupying himself through the long evening hours.

"O, not so late as that!" returned the man, drawing a rude chair before
the fire and extending his small, thin hands to the grateful blaze. "The
village clock in the old church tower at Wimbledon was on the stroke of
ten when I laid my bundle of sticks in their accustomed place, and set my
face homewards. I must have travelled at a laggard pace, if it is already
midnight. Are you lonesome when I'm away, Edgar?" inquired he, turning
his deep, melancholy eyes on the fair, open countenance of the youth.

"Sometimes I am," returned he; "I have been so to-night. A strange power
seemed to possess my thoughts, to lead them through most hideous scenes,
and dark, awful glooms and shadows enveloped my soul in mazes of doubt
and fear."

"What a nervous boy you are!" said the man, "come and sit beside me, and
I'll tell you of a project I've been revolving in my mind these several
days." Edgar did as requested, and after a brief silence the hermit
commenced:

"These six months, my lad, you have dwelt in this little hut in the
forest, holding intercourse with no human being save myself. It is not
right your boyhood and youth should pass in this manner. I have been
selfish in keeping you all to myself, to cheer my solitude. 'Twas your
parents' dying wish that you should receive all the advantages of
education and travel. Your life has been, for the most part, spent in the
toil of study, and I knew you needed an interval of relaxation and
retirement to reinvigorate your mental and physical energies. So I
brought you to share the seclusion of my hermitage for a while. Grateful
as has been your presence to me, I should wrong you, and forfeit the
promise given your parents on their deathbeds, if I encouraged or
permitted this retirement for a longer period than is necessary for your
restoration to health and vigor. You know I am your guardian, Edgar. The
fortune left for you by your father was entrusted to my care till you
should attain a suitable age to have it transferred to your own hands,
and ample provisions were made for your education and instruction in the
painter's art. Do yo