Page:Sketch of Connecticut, Forty Years Since.djvu/134

 crucifix, and the joints of the bended knees were firm as adamant.

"He has kept his Lent with such strictness," said John Cooper, "that the feeble spark of life was almost smothered before this storm blew upon it."

"The dark Angel, who demands the spirit," said Robert Ashbow, "saw it in devotion, as the altar from whence incense rises."

"Happy is that servant," replied Mr. Occom "whom his Lord when he cometh, shall find watching."

Zachary, who, notwithstanding his age, had been moved by warmth of heart, to join the search for the desolate hermit, anxiously surveyed the body, pressing his hand alternately upon the temples and the bosom. He then wrapped it closely in the skins, which had formed its miserable bed, and directed it to be borne with care to the nearest habitation.

"Know ye, how deep is the dwelling of the soul?" he exclaimed. "How long it may linger within its dark house, when lips of clay pronounce it gone to the shades of its fathers?"

The body was borne to the house of John Cooper, and laid upon the bed. Zachary chafed the temples with vinegar, immersed the limbs in cold water to expel the frost, and rubbed them for a long time with an animal oil to soften their rigidity of fibre. At short intervals, he endeavoured to pass through the lips the decoction of a