rshy,
overgrown with rank grass and dismal willows. The water, which was
clear enough on the open sandy side, where the sun shone, looked black
and poisonous opposite to me, where it lay deeper under the shade of
the spongy banks, and the rank overhanging thickets and tangled trees.
The frogs were croaking, and the rats were slipping in and out of the
shadowy water, like live shadows themselves, as I got nearer to the
marshy side of the lake. I saw here, lying half in and half out of the
water, the rotten wreck of an old overturned boat, with a sickly spot
of sunlight glimmering through a gap in the trees on its dry surface,
and a snake basking in the midst of the spot, fantastically coiled and
treacherously still. Far and near the view suggested the same dreary
impressions of solitude and decay, and the glorious brightness of the
summer sky overhead seemed only to deepen and harden the gloom and
barrenness of the wilderness on which it shone. I turned and retraced
my steps to the high heathy ground, directing them a little aside from
my former path towards a shabby old wooden shed, which stood on the
outer skirt of the fir plantation, and which had hitherto been too
unimportant to share my notice with the wide, wild prospect of the lake.

On approaching the shed I found that it had once been a boat-house,
and that an attempt had apparently been made to convert it afterwards
into a sort of rude arbour, by placing inside it a firwood seat, a few
stools, and a table. I entered the place, and sat down for a little
while to rest and get my breath again.

I had not been in the boat-house more than a minute when it struck me
that the sound of my own quick breathing was very strangely echoed by
something beneath me. I listened intently for a moment, and heard a
low, thick, sobbing breath that seemed to come from the ground under
the seat which I was occupying. My nerves are not easily shaken by
trifles, but on this occasion I started to my feet in a fright--called
out--received no answer--summoned back my recreant courage, and looked
under the seat.

There, crouched up in the farthest corner, lay the forlorn cause of my
terror, in the shape of a poor little dog--a black and white spaniel.
The creature moaned feebly when I looked at it and called to it, but
never stirred. I moved away the seat and looked closer. The poor
little dog's eyes were glazing fast, and there were spots of blood on
its glossy white side. Th