e while passing it.
This phantom--whatever it might be--seemed to be entirely free from
human feelings. I do not think this idea tended to reassure me, and when
we left the closely built street, and merged into the open country,
where the fields stretched away on every side of us, with no life in
them, and where loneliness and desolation reigned supreme, I felt a new
terror, and longed to turn, and flee back to human life. But no! I must
follow my conductress wherever she chose to lead me!

Miriam walked slowly at first, but had increased her speed as she
proceeded, and now she was walking so swiftly that I could scarcely keep
pace with her. I saw white marbles gleaming among the trees at the top
of a hill, and knew that we were approaching the graveyard. It was a
dreary-looking place--a disgrace to the village. The stone wall was in a
dilapidated condition, and in some places there were gaps in it. The
graves were overgrown with rank weeds, and many old gray tombstones lay
on the ground. The gate was swinging loosely on its hinges, and we
passed swiftly through it. And now, thought I, the mystery is solved.
Miriam is going to bury herself, and has brought me to fill the grave,
so that no one may see her body but me, I can never, never do it, if she
fixes those terrible eyes upon me! An open grave lay in our pathway. The
red clay soil, which was heaped around it, was moist. I felt my feet
sink in it as we passed over it--for around the grave we went on our
swift, unerring course--although I knew the grave had been that day dug
for Miriam! Did she know this? If so, she gave no sign of that
knowledge, and I breathed more freely when we were fairly out of the
graveyard. On the other side of it was a thick wood, into which I had
never penetrated. Indeed the thorny thickets, and low, poisonous bushes
made it impenetrable to any one, and yet it was into this wood that
Miriam led the way. How we pushed through it I do not know. My clothes
were nearly torn into rags, and so were Miriam's. My flesh was torn also
in several places. I had no means of knowing whether hers was torn also.

At last she stopped before a mass of--but my heart grows sick and my
brain dizzy when I think of that--I cannot describe it, but I knew by
unmistakable evidences that the lost Annie was found!

I looked at Miriam, but she did not return my glance. I could not see
her face. She stopped only a moment, and continued her walk. And now I
followed fear