sheer force of will power, her heroic efforts were painful to behold. Soon this gave way to complete inability to hardly move from side to side upon her rude pallet. In one sense her helplessness seemed to be a fortunate circumstance for Sarah rather than otherwise, because it brought her out of the depths of her abstraction of mind as nothing else could have done. She now became the one that had to minister to the wants of the other and provide for both Agathy and herself. There was no want of tenderness to her faithful servant and attendant, her solicitude for her every want was met with alacrity and even anticipation, which was marvelous and brought out the latent goodness of her nature that had lain so long dormant for want of activity, stimulated by her affection. She busied herself about the ordinary affairs of life, limited, it is true, but with an eagerness born of a debt of love given by her faithful companion. As these matters passed before the ever watchful eyes of Agathy, as she lay in her helpless condition, she would watch her mistress with an adoring look as she noted the love and womanly tenderness that characterized all her actions of nursing. This awakening from her apathy gave added comfort to Agathy, making it apparent that when she was gone, the attention to her own wants would draw her from her sorrow.

Barney was as ever watchful and sympathetic as of yore and scarcely a couple of days passed that he did not visit the cave and leave his offerings. Sarah took all of his acts of attention as

evidences of his acts of kindness for the faithful Agathy.

One morning Barney made his accustomed visit, and as he approached the cave saw Sarah Bishop sitting in front of the rocks in one of her fits of brooding and dejection that was all the more obvious as since Agathy's illness they were of less and less frequency and depth. His mind quickly divined the truth that Agathy was no more and that she had departed this life. Peering into the cave he saw what he suspected was a certainty. The body of Agathy in the stillness of death, stretched on her rude couch with hands meekly folded, a serene expression upon her upturned face as if her last moments had been attended with peace. The first traces of tears he had ever seen were still visible upon Mistress Sarah Bishop's face. She signified that she wished his counsel and assistance.

"Poor Agathy, good soul, has gone to her reckoning. God rest her soul," piously ejaculated Barney. "Where will we bury her, I suppose in the churchyard of the village?" asked Barney.

"Agathy wanted to rest on the mountain side, near the cave, if she died first, I promised her Í would carry out her wishes, and if I died first she would do the same for me," said Sarah.

"Let her rest underneath the vine beyant that she loved so well," said Barney. "I will go and dig a place for her body."

By an inclination of her head she signified that it would be pleasing to her to have him attend to that part of the solemn duties. It was but a short

space of time before everything was ready for the interment of Agathy's remains. While Barney was doing his share, Sarah had been gathering leaves and branches of the flowering dogwood and long garlands of the hoary clematis, with the soft tones of the green underbrush, and when Barney had finished his self imposed task, she brought them forth and lined the grave with the leaves, branches, flowers and twigs, making a lovely bed as she artistically blended the colors. Now they brought forth the body and laying it gently upon the floral bower covered it with flowers and leaves and branches followed by the gently replaced mother earth. After which garlands interwoven in various devices were laid upon the mound and they reverently knelt in prayer silently mingling and sending their petitions heavenward.

CHAPTER XXV.

The Hermitess Finds Peace and Balm

A

to her Troubled Spirit

"Hope, like the glimm'ring taper's light,
Adorns and cheers the way;

And still, as darker grows the night,
Emits a brighter ray."

-Goldsmith.

FTER the death and burial of Agathy, Sarah relapsed somewhat into her old moods of abstraction, coming out of them for brief periods for a longer or shorter space of time to attend the simple wants of nature. Although sadness attended her at all times she did not pass into the deeper fits of dejection and gloom that were wont to be so painfully apparent at times. Much of her idle moments were given over to reverie and thoughts beyond the grave, which seemed to lend her solace and comfort, at the same time making it apparent that there was some sweet spiritual communion with those who had gone before. The vigils of her fasts were often of long duration so that besides becoming thinner in physique it added much of the spirituelle to her face lessening the hard lines furrowed into her cheeks by the strong conflicting moments of pain and anguish, that had so often swept over her. The look of utter loneliness and weariness had left her face, and in its stead there came an expression of kindred companionship that filled up the uneven hollows and crevices of her mind with the influence of something nobler, grander and of a sublime nature that

at once lifted her above things terrestrial, filling her with the Light that cometh into the world for all men. She often seemed to possess some miracle of mind which permitted her to view herself as if from afar, to look at herself as if it were by another, and to be able to view both with an abstraction or disinterestedness born of some strongly intimate sense that it was still her own and that both belonged to her and from an evolvement of them, cast before her vision by a hidden and supernatural force, she was given to see that she had entered a new life differing from the old one, inasmuch as the new one partook more of a fullness of the spiritual than physical, rounded out to a maturity of earthly chastening with a longing for something to come after that was immeasurably superior and higher than the present and would leave nothing to desire. Also that the sufferings she had already endured would be added to those of the present to increase the happiness of her future state. She had a premonition that in experiencing the new life it would be in the companionship of those dear ones who had caused her so much happiness and sadness on earth. There were intervals during these times when she was permitted to vaguely anticipate the glories of her future life; others, when her spirit moorings seemed to be swept from her, enveloping her in the black clouds of gloom, desolation and despair, through which darkness she could not penetrate; and she would again sink to the lowest depths of despair and drink to the last dregs of her anguish. But slowly the clouds would break,