, half-turned over, with their eyes riveted upon
the bear; and my father, seeing himself stand as though invisible in the
thick of this dreary hubbub, was seized with a desire to weep. A touch
upon the arm restrained him. Turning about, he found himself face to
face with the old man he had so nearly killed; and yet, at the second
glance, recognised him for no old man at all, but one in the full
strength of his years, and of a strong, speaking, and intellectual
countenance stigmatised by weariness and famine. He beckoned my father
near the cliff, and there, in the most private whisper, begged for
brandy. My father looked at him with scorn: "You remind me," he said,
"of a neglected duty. Here is my flask; it contains enough, I trust, to
revive the women of your party; and I will begin with her whom I saw you
robbing of her blankets." And with that, not heeding his appeals, my
father turned his back upon the egoist.

The girl still lay reclined against the rock; she lay too far sunk in
the first stage of death to have observed the bustle round her couch;
but when my father had raised her head, put the flask to her lips, and
forced or aided her to swallow some drops of the restorative, she opened
her languid eyes and smiled upon him faintly. Never was there a smile of
a more touching sweetness; never were eyes more deeply violet, more
honestly eloquent of the soul! I speak with knowledge, for these were
the same eyes that smiled upon me in the cradle. From her who was to be
his wife, my father, still jealously watched and followed by the man
with the grey beard, carried his attentions to all the women of the
party, and gave the last drainings of his flask to those among the men
who seemed in the most need.

"Is there none left? not a drop for me?" said the man with the beard.

"Not one drop," replied my father; "and if you find yourself in want,
let me counsel you to put your hand into the pocket of your coat."

"Ah!" cried the other, "you misjudge me. You think me one who clings to
life for selfish and commonplace considerations. But let me tell you,
that were all this caravan to perish, the world would but be lightened
of a weight. These are but human insects, pullulating, thick as
may-flies, in the slums of European cities, whom I myself have plucked
from degradation and misery, from the dung-heap and gin-palace door. And
you compare their lives with mine!"

"You are then a Mormon missionary?" asked my father.

"Oh