He lay contemplating the strange
scene before him: the wild woods and rocks around--the fire, throwing
fitful gleams on the faces of the sleeping savages--and the Heer
Antony, too, who so singularly, yet vaguely reminded him of the
nightly visitant to the haunted house. Now and then he heard the cry
of some animal from the forest; or the hooting of the owl; or the
notes of the whip-poor-will, which seemed to abound among these
solitudes; or the splash of a sturgeon, leaping out of the river, and
falling back full length on its placid surface. He contrasted all this
with his accustomed nest in the garret-room of the doctor's mansion;
where the only sounds he heard at night were the church-clock telling
the hour; the drowsy voice of the watchman, drawling out all was well;
the deep snoring of the doctor's clubbed nose from below stairs; or
the cautious labours of some carpenter rat gnawing in the wainscot.
His thoughts then wandered to his poor old mother: what would she
think of his mysterious disappearance?--what anxiety and distress
would she not suffer? This was the thought that would continually
intrude itself, to mar his present enjoyment. It brought with it a
feeling of pain and compunction, and he fell asleep with the tears yet
standing in his eyes.
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