Then they stirred, and lifted their heads wearily, and gazed at each other wistfully, dreamily, dazed; then presently began to twaddle to each other in a wandering and childish way.  At intervals they lapsed into silences, leaving a sentence unfinished, seemingly either unaware of it or losing their way.  Sometimes, when they woke out of these silences they had a dim and transient consciousness that something had happened to their minds; then with a dumb and yearning solicitude they would softly caress each other’s hands in mutual compassion and support, as if they would say:  “I am near you, I will not forsake you, we will bear it together; somewhere there is release and forgetfulness, somewhere there is a grave and peace; be patient, it will not be long.”

They lived yet two years, in mental night, always brooding, steeped in vague regrets and melancholy dreams, never speaking; then release came to both on the same day.

Toward the end the darkness lifted from Sally’s ruined mind for a moment, and he said: 

“Vast wealth, acquired by sudden and unwholesome means, is a snare.  It did us no good, transient were its feverish pleasures; yet for its sake we threw away our sweet and simple and happy life —­let others take warning by us.”

He lay silent awhile, with closed eyes; then as the chill of death crept upward toward his heart, and consciousness was fading from his brain, he muttered: 

“Money had brought him misery, and he took his revenge upon us, who had done him no harm.  He had his desire:  with base and cunning calculation he left us but thirty thousand, knowing we would try to increase it, and ruin our life and break our hearts.  Without added expense he could have left us far above desire of increase, far above the temptation to speculate, and a kinder soul would have done it; but in him was no generous spirit, no pity, no—­”

A DOG’S TALE

CHAPTER I

My father was a St. Bernard, my mother was a collie, but I am a Presbyterian.  This is what my mother told me, I do not know these nice distinctions myself.  To me they are only fine large words meaning nothing.  My mother had a fondness for such; she liked to say them, and see other dogs look surprised and envious, as wondering how she got so much education.  But, indeed, it was not real education; it was only show:  she got the words by listening in the dining-room and drawing-room when there was company, and by going with the children to Sunday-school and listening there; and whenever she heard a large word she said it over to herself many times, and so was able to keep it until there was a dogmatic gathering in the neighborhood, then she would get it off, and surprise and distress them all, from pocket-pup to mastiff, which rewarded her for all her trouble.  If there was a stranger he was nearly sure to be suspicious, and when he got