some time in vain, until at length she found two or three bunches of the
herb growing in a little lonely nook that lay behind a projecting ledge
of rock, where one would seldom think of looking for herbage at all.
Here she found a little, soft, green spot, covered over with dandelion;
and immediately she began to dig it up. The softness of the earth and
its looseness surprised her a good deal; and moved by an unaccountable
curiosity, she pushed the spade further down, until it was met by some
substance that felt rather hard. From this she cleared away the earth as
well as she could, and discovered that the spade had been opposed by a
bone; and on proceeding to examine still further, she discovered that
the spot on which the dandelions had grown, contained the bones of a
full grown human body.

CHAPTER V. -- The Black Prophet is Startled by a Black Prophecy.

Having satisfied herself that the skeleton was a human one, she
cautiously put back the earth, and covered it up with the green sward,
as graves usually are covered, and in such a way that there should
exist, from the undisturbed appearance of the place, as little risk as
possible of discovery. This being-settled, she returned with the herbs,
laying aside the spade, from off which she had previously rubbed the red
earth, so as to prevent any particular observation; she sat down, and
locking her fingers into each other, swayed her body backwards and
forwards in silence, as a female does in Ireland when under the
influence of deep and absorbing sorrow, whilst from time to time she
fixed her eyes on the prophet, and sighed deeply.

"I thought," said he, "I sent you for the dandelion; where is it?"

"Oh," she replied, unrolling it from the corner of her apron, "here
it is--I forgot it--ay, I forgot it--and no wondher--oh, no wondher,
indeed!--Providence! You may blaspheme Providence as much as you like;
but he'll take his own out o' you yet; an' indeed, it's comin' to
that--it is, Donnel, an' you'll find it so."

The man had just taken the herbs into his hand and was about to shred
them into small leaves for the poultice, when she uttered the last
words. He turned his eyes upon her; and in an instant that terrible
scowl, for which he was so remarkable, when in a state of passion, gave
its deep and deadly darkness to his already disfigured visage. His eyes
blazed, and one half of his face became ghastly with rage.

"What do you mane?" he asked; "what does