girl, said to her: "I see I
cannot trust you, unless you swear upon this book, never, while I live,
to breathe to any living person what has been done here to-night. When I
am dead do what you like, but swear now, as you hope for heaven, never
to tell!"

And Hannah took the oath which he dictated to her, and kissed the sacred
book which seemed to burn her lips as she did so. She had sworn. She
would keep the vow to the end, and her father knew it, and with this
fear lifted from his mind he became almost cheerful in his manner, as he
explained to her what she was to do.

And Hannah obeyed him, and with limbs which trembled in every joint went
with him to the attic and helped him bring down some boards which had
lain there for years and on which she and Burton had played many an hour
in days gone by. She knew what he was going to do with them, and without
a word held the light while he fashioned the rude coffin in which he
laid the dead man, but not until she had with her own hands reverently
and tenderly washed the blood from the ghastly face and bound about the
wound upon the temple a handkerchief which she found in his pack. Then,
after the body was placed in the box, she took a pillow from her
father's bed, and putting on it a clean covering and placing it under
the peddler's head, folded his hands upon his breast, and kneeling
beside the box bowed her head upon the boards and began the Lord's
Prayer.

It was her burial service for the dead, all she could think of, and for
a moment her father stood staring at her as if stupefied with what he
saw; then his features relaxed, and falling on his knees beside her he
cried out piteously:

"Oh, Father in heaven, forgive, forgive! Thou knowest I did not mean to
do it. Have mercy, have mercy! Blot out my great sin, and if a prayer
for the dead is not wrong, grant that this man, my friend, whom I sent
into eternity with no time for repentance, may be among the saved;
forbid that I should destroy him body and soul. Oh, help me! for the
brand of Cain is upon me, and already my punishment seems greater than I
can bear. If I could give my life for his I would do so gladly, but I
cannot, and I must live on in torment forever and ever, with this
blood-stain on my hands burning like coals of fire. Oh, my heavenly
Father, have mercy! I did not mean to do it."

His head was on the rough coffin and he was sobbing in wild abandonment
of despair, while Hannah, too, knelt beside him,