hing like the low feeble wail of an infant.

"Ah," said the worthy priest, "this, I fear, is another of those awful
cases of desertion and death that are too common in this terrible and
scourging visitation. We must not pass here without seeing what is the
matther, and rendering such assistance as we can."

"Wid the help o' God, my foot won't cross the threshel," replied
Nelly--"I know it's the sickness--God keep it from us!--an' I won't put
myself in the way o' it."

"Don't profain the name of the Almighty, you wretched woman," replied
the priest, alighting from his horse; "it is always His will and wish,
that in such trials as these you should do whatever you can for your
suffering fellow-creatures."

"But if I should catch it," the other replied, "what 'ud become o' me?
mightn't I be as bad as they are in there; an' maybe in the same place,
too; an' God knows I'm not fit to die."

"Stay where you are," said the priest, "until I enter the house, and if
your assistance should be necessary, I shall command you to come in."

"Well, if you ordher me," replied the superstitious creature, "that
changes the case. I'll be then undher obadience to my clargy."

"If you had better observed the precepts of your religion, and the
injunctions of your clergy, wretched woman, you would not be the vile
creature you are to-day," he replied, as he hooked his horse's bridle
upon a staple in the door-post, and entered the cabin.

"Oh, merciful father, support me!" he exclaimed, "what a sight is here!
Come in at once," he added, addressing himself to Nelly; "and if you
have a woman's heart within you, aid me in trying what can be done."

Awed by his words, but with timidity and reluctance, she approached the
scene of appalling misery which there lay before them. But how shall we
describe it? The cabin in which they stood had been evidently for some
time deserted, a proof that its former humble inmates had been all swept
off by typhus; for in these peculiar and not uncommon cases, no other
family would occupy the house thus left desolate, so that the cause
of its desertion was easily understood. The floor was strewed in some
places with little stopples of rotten thatch, evidently blown in by the
wind of the previous night; the cheerless fire-place was covered with
clots of soot, and the floor was all spattered over with the black
shining moisture called soot-drops, which want of heat and habitation
caused to fall from the roof. The