Marsh, and deserted by all mourners except the two children. Whatever
he had instilled into them by precept and example, whatever took place
that night in their lonely watch by his bier on the black marshes, it
was certain that those who confidently looked for any change in the
administration of the Dedlow Marsh were cruelly mistaken. The old
Kingfisher was dead, but he had left in the nest two young birds, more
beautiful and graceful, it was true, yet as fierce and tenacious of
beak and talon.

II.

Arriving at the house, the young people ascended the outer flight of
wooden steps, which bore an odd likeness to the companion-way of a
vessel, and the gallery, or 'deck,' as it was called--where a number of
nets, floats, and buoys thrown over the railing completed the nautical
resemblance. This part of the building was evidently devoted to
kitchen, dining-room, and domestic offices; the principal room in the
centre serving as hall or living-room, and communicating on the other
side with two sleeping apartments. It was of considerable size, with
heavy lateral beams across the ceiling--built, like the rest of the
house, with a certain maritime strength--and looked not unlike a saloon
cabin. An enormous open Franklin stove between the windows, as large
as a chimney, blazing with drift-wood, gave light and heat to the
apartment, and brought into flickering relief the boarded walls hung
with the spoils of sea and shore, and glittering with gun-barrels.
Fowling-pieces of all sizes, from the long ducking-gun mounted on a
swivel for boat use to the light single-barrel or carbine, stood in
racks against the walls; game-bags, revolvers in their holsters,
hunting and fishing knives in their sheaths, depended from hooks above
them. In one corner stood a harpoon; in another, two or three Indian
spears for salmon. The carpetless floor and rude chairs and settles
were covered with otter, mink, beaver, and a quantity of valuable
seal-skins, with a few larger pelts of the bear and elk. The only
attempt at decoration was the displayed wings and breasts of the wood
and harlequin duck, the muir, the cormorant, the gull, the gannet, and
the femininely delicate half-mourning of petrel and plover, nailed
against the wall. The influence of the sea was dominant above all, and
asserted its saline odors even through the spice of the curling
drift-wood smoke that half veiled the ceiling.

A berry-eyed old Indian woman with the complexion