Page:Maud Howe - Atlanta in the South.djvu/245

 and throwing herself at his feet besought him to come to her husband, who was either dying or bewitched. The good man stopped only to gather together those necessaries of spiritual-and physical ministration which the sufferer might require,—a few phials of medicine and the vessels for the sacrament of extreme unction,—and disappeared down the woodland path, followed by the weeping woman. The boy having fed himself, the dogs, and the puppy, quenched the embers of the fire with water from the spring near by, and nodding to Robert, departed without a word of greeting, taking the same direction as the priest.

With only his dogs for company, Robert sat before the chapel, watching the death of the day, and the night darkening in the skies and through the odorous forest. He listened to those silent noises of the night which are felt rather than heard, and in his mind reviewed all the things the priest had said to him. He had been in the forest only twenty-four hours, and yet yesterday appeared a year ago. It seemed impossible to him that so short a distance, so brief a space of time, divided him from the city where he had but the day before seen Margaret stepping on board the little steamer, supported by Philip's arm. The thought which had yesterday tortured him, he now smiled at. The cool forest breeze had