and hand, to cherish her; and I would speak to her
of this passion and dear hope, but must not, because of the mystery
concerning me. There came, then, an evening when I sought my uncle out
to question him; 'twas a hushed and compassionate hour, I recall, the
sunset waxing glorious above the remotest sea, and the night creeping
with gentle feet upon the world, to spread its soft blanket of
shadows.

I remembered the gray stranger's warning.

"Here I is, lad," cries my uncle, with an effort at heartiness, which,
indeed, had departed from him, and would not come again. "Here I
is--havin' a little dram o' rum with Nature!"

'Twas a draught of salt air he meant.

"Dannie," says he, in overwhelming uneasiness, his voice become hoarse
and tremulous, "ye got a thing on your mind!"

I found him very old and ill and hopeless; 'twas with a shock that the
thing came home to me: the man was past all labor of the hands, got
beyond all ships and winds and fishing--confronting, now, with an
anxious heart, God knows! a future of dependence, for life and love,
upon the lad he had nourished to the man that was I. I remembered,
again, the warning of that gray personage who had said that my
contempt would gather at this hour; and I thought, as then I had in
boyish faith most truly believed, that I should never treat my uncle
with unkindness. 'Twas very still and glowing and beneficent upon the
sea; 'twas not an hour, thinks I, whatever the prophecy concerning it,
for any pain to come upon us. My uncle was fallen back in a great
chair, on a patch of greensward overlooking the sea, to which he had
turned his face; and 'twas a kindly prospect that lay before his aged
eyes--a sweep of softest ocean, walled with gentle, drifting cloud,
wherein were the fool's great Gates, wide open to the glory beyond.

"I'm wishing, sir," said I, "to wed Judith."

"'Tis a good hope," he answered.

I saw his hand wander over the low table beside him: I knew what it
sought--and that by his will and for my sake it must forever seek
without satisfaction.

"Sir," I implored, "I've no heart to ask her!"

He did not answer.

"And you know why, sir," I accused him. "You know why!"

"Dannie," says he, "ye've wished for this hour."

"And I am ready, sir."

He drew then from his pocket a small Bible, much stained and wrinkled
by water, which he put on the table between us. "Dannie, lad," says
he, "do ye now go t' your own little room, where ye was used