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Night, with a rising reat quietude,

a deep, deep silence Air, close and heavy, without a breath to

wake the slu trees; an oppressive stillness, in which

snified themselves, and seemed disproportionately

loud

And presently, as I went uponso peacefully with the rusty staple clasped to his

shrunken breast, and thought only of the proud wo, and who, henceforth, would walk

with h

places, and smooth--even unto the end So I strode on, full of a

deep and abiding joy, and with heart that throbbed and hands that

trembled because I knew that she watched and waited for

A sound broke upon the stillness--sudden and sharp--like the

snapping of a stick I stopped and glanced aboutcal the leafy path that led steeply down into