A Canadian Heroine, Volume 2

at once, yet dreaded to ask it. They were waiting tea for her; and the bright cheerful room, with its peaceful home-look, the table and famil

time tea was over, she was ready to hear what had been done, without such an exaggerate

k; and after a little wh

oon in Cacouna. I have scarcely had ti

was glad the subject had been commenced without her, and o

om her birth now plunged so young into a sea of troubles, and as he saw how bravely and steadily she met them, his desire to help and spare her grew painfully strong. If he could have said to them both, "Go, leave the miserable w

have been in Cacouna for some hours to-day and I shall be there again to-m

too heavily to be much increased by anything that could happen, and now she knew by the wild throb of hope how its weight had been doubled and trebled since the shadow of mur

is, if you have heard at all exact

itation in her words or tone. Mr. Strafford w

blow-but really a murder, though unpremeditated. Quite near to the place where the body lay, a man was found hidden among the bushes. His hands and clothes were marked with blood; he had by him a hatchet which had all the appearance of having been used to inflict the wounds on the murdered man, and a hea

this brief and clear account, riveting as it did upon their minds the certainty of guilt, had been endured a

and, without doubt a stronger case would be difficult to find. Unless something new should come to

nxious watch on the faces opposite to him, lest his touch, howe

but he appears to have so bad a character that no one would be shocked or surprised to hear that he was the murderer. He had also a much stronger ill-will against Doctor Morton than any one else, either Indian or white man, can be show

ght with me, nevertheless. It is, that I believe the man who is in prison fo

ello uttered a broken e

not many weeks ago, that even I scarcely did so. They tell me that he has had an attack of fever while he was i

rs. Costello asked,

iving in one of the shanties close to the mill. It is extremely swampy and unhealthy t

nevertheless. A feeling of compassion for the first time stole

said; "do you know a

g anything-for two or three days. That morning his companions went out and left him

tion him? Wha

had some whisky-very little would overcome a man in his condition-so that if he crawled out into the sunshine, and finally lay down among

tchet? Was

him, ever was his; and though it is a hard thing to say, it can be imagined that the very thi

he denies the stick being his? Did he talk to yo

nswered her que

age and streng

hink it well f

ht her mot

st not go! Mr. Strafford, sh

ar, my child. Certainly this,

man you will see to remind you of the past, and yet my great reason for thinking it well for you to see him is a hope that you may be able

mean? Does no

letely gone, or terror and imprisonment have deadened it for the time. The other men who have been working with him say that he was sane enough when he

d covered her fa

ng back his recollection. But is there anything to be gained by doing

sane enough, on that day, to be accountable for what he did; and if we could

it would be only inflicting useless pain, to make

er concerned and un

. If it does not succeed, I promise that

ll know of my mother's going to the

ion of his prisoner. He talked to me to-day about him so compassionately, that I asked whether it would be possible for any one residing in the town to be allo

emory in the former, and imagination in the latter were busy perpetually with that one who, by the laws of God and man, ought to have been the third at their fireside-who had been for years a vagrant and an outcast, and was now the inmate

e truth, and scarcely needed the additional impulse given by his warm regard for Mrs. Costello and Lucia, to induce him to devote himself, as far as his other duties would allow, to the unfortunate Christian. He was anxious to bring the long separated husband and wife togethe