r.

In vain the boy and the sailorman looked with all their might at the
place where he had gone down; in vain they poked a long pole into the
water after him; in vain did Bob and Jocko paddle in the canoe all over
the place where Black Jim Lewis had sunk.

Perkins took the precaution, before descending the bank, to say:
"You'll remember, Mis' Braown, that I only bought him on conditions,
and stipple-lated I wuz to be satisfied when I come to look him over.
'Tain't no loss of mine." This caveat duly lodged, he descended to the
deck of his sloop, where he found the cabin boy shaking as with an
ague.

"What be you a-trimblin' abaout, naow? Got a fever 'n' agur a'ready? Y'
ain't afeard of a dead man, be yeh, Elkanah?"

"I don't noways like the idear," said Elkanah, "of sleepin' aboard, an'
him dead thar by his own will, a-layin' closte up to the sloop."

"He ain't nowher's nigh the sloop," responded Perkins. "This ebb-tide's
got him in tow, an' he'll be down layin' ag'in' the Nancy Jane afore
mornin'. That's the ship he'll ha'nt, bein' kind uv used to her."

Browne had remained standing at the top of the bank, without saying a
single word. He turned at last, and started slowly toward the house.
Judith, forgetting her invitation to the peddler, went after her
husband and took his hand.

"I'm so glad he's dead," said she. "I know the cruel man deserved his
fate. He'll be off your mind, now, dear; and nobody can say you did
it."

A BASEMENT STORY.

I.

It was one of those obscure days found only on the banks of
Newfoundland. There was no sun, and yet no visible cloud; there was
nothing, indeed, to test the vision by; there was no apparent fog, but
sight was soon lost in a hazy indefiniteness. Near objects stood out
with a distinctness almost startling. The swells ran high without
sufficient provocation from the present wind, and attention was
absorbed by the tremendous pitching of the steamer's bow, the wide arc
described by the mainmast against no background at all, and by the
smoky and bellying mainsail, kept spread to hold the vessel to some
sort of steadiness in the waves. There was no storm, nor any dread of a
storm, and the few passengers who were not seasick in stateroom bunks
below, or stretched in numb passivity on the sofas in the music saloon,
were watching the rough sea with a cheerful excitement. In the total
absence of sky and the entire abolition of horizon the eye rejoiced,
like Noah's do