hed them, till I felt a'most as
fond of them as of my own children; and never would leg have crossed her
while she was in my possession had that not happened that may happen to
any man, when he least expects it.

"My wife had been ill, very ill. My poor Lizzy, I thought I should ha'
certainly lost her. The doctors said she must be kept quiet in bed; if
she stirred for five days she was a lost woman. Well, one afternoon as I
was cutting a bit o' grass at th' bottom o' th' orchard for the osses,
again they came from ploughing the fallows, I heard a shriek that went
through me like a baggonet. Down I flings th' scythe. 'That's Lizzy, and
no other!' I shouted to myself. 'She's out of bed,--and, goodness! what
can it be? She's ten to one gone mad with a brain fever!' There seemed
to have fallen ten thousand millstones on my heart. I tried to run, but
I couldn't. I was as cold as ice. I was as fast rooted to the ground as
a tree. There was another shriek more piercing than before--and I was
off like an arrow from a bow--I was loose then. I was all on fire. I ran
like a madman till I came within sight of th' house; and there I saw
Lizzy in her nightgown with half her body out of the window, shrieking
and wringing her hands like any crazed body.

"'Stop! stop!' I cried, 'Lizzy! Lizzy! back! back! for Heaven's sake!'

"'There! there!' screamed she, pointing with staring eyes and ghastly
face down into the Darrant that runs under the windows.

"'O God!' I exclaimed, 'she'll drown herself! she's crazed, she means to
fling herself in'--groaning as I ran, and trying to keep crying to her,
but my voice was dead in my throat.

"When I reached her chamber, I found her fallen on the floor,--she was
as white as a ghost, and sure enough I thought she was one. I lifted her
upon the bed, and screamed amain for the nurse, for the maid, but not a
soul came. I rubbed Lizzy's hands; clapped them; tried her
smelling-bottle. At length she came to herself with a dreadful
groan,--flashed open her eyes wide on me, and cried, 'Didst see him?
Didst save him? Where is he? Where is he?'

"'Merciful Providence!' I exclaimed. 'She's gone only too sure! It's all
over with her!'

"'Where is he? Where's my dear Sam? Thou didn't let him drown?'

"'Drown? Sam? What?' I cried. 'What dost mean, Lizzy?'

"'O John! Sammy!--he was drowning i' th' Darrant--oh!--'

"She fainted away again, and a dreadful truth flashed on my mind. She
had seen our little Sa