Brown's trousers, which were six inches too short for
him, and then he climbed over the back fence and went home. Such
misfortunes would have discouraged most men utterly, but Peter was
desperately in love; and a week or two later, without stopping to
estimate his chances, he proposed to his fair enchantress. She refused
him promptly, of course. He seemed almost wild over his defeat, and
his friends feared that some evil consequences would ensue. Their
apprehensions were realized. Peter called upon young Potts and asked
him if he had a revolver, and Potts said he had. Peter asked Potts to
lend it to him, and Potts did so. Then Peter informed Potts that he
had made up his mind to commit suicide. He said that since Miss Brown
had dealt so unkindly with him he felt that life was an insupportable
burden, and he could find relief only in the tomb. He intended to go
down by the river-shore and there blow out his brains, and so end all
this suffering and grief and bid farewell to a world that had grown
dark to him. He said that he mentioned the fact to Potts in confidence
because he wanted him to perform some little offices for him when he
was gone. He entrusted to Potts a sonnet entitled "A Last Farewell,"
and addressed to Julia Brown. This he asked should be delivered to
Miss Brown as soon as his corpse was discovered. He said it might
excite a pang in her bosom and induce her to cherish his memory. Then
he gave Potts his watch as a keepsake, and handed him forty dollars,
with which he desired Mr. Potts to purchase a tombstone. He said he
would prefer a plain one with his simple name cut upon it, and he
wanted the funeral to be as unostentatious as possible.

Potts promised to fulfill these commissions, and he suggested that he
would lend Mr. Lamb a bowie-knife, with which he could slash himself
up if the pistol failed.

But the suicide said that he would make sure work with the revolver,
although he was much obliged for the offer all the same. He said he
would like Potts to go around in the morning and break the news as
gently as possible to his unhappy mother, and to tell her that his
last thought was of her. But he particularly requested that she would
not put on mourning for her erring son.

Then he said that the awful act would be performed on the beach, just
below the gas-works, and he wished Potts to come out with some kind of
a vehicle to bring the remains home. If Julia came to the funeral,
she was to have a seat