Sisum never remarried, but his affection upon his daughter and especially the grandchild Ruth, whom it may be said he loved more than his own life. Thus things stood until the little one was nearly five years old, when she showed alarming signs of sinking into a decline. Her parents to take her on a long sea voyage in the summer time. The understanding was that they were to be gone for several months, but they never returned. Their steamer was not heard of again.
It was years before the grandfather gave up hope. The long brooding over his grief and the final yielding to despair,—slow but final,—produced a strange effect upon his mind. Only his most intimate friends saw that his brain was ; others met and talked with him daily with never a suspicion of the fact. He had come to the gradual but belief that although his dear ones had left him for the land of shadows, yet somewhere and at some time in this life his grandchild would come to him. She might not remain long, but she would reveal herself unmistakably before Uncle himself passed into the Great Beyond. It was the centering of his thoughts and hopes upon this strange fancy that was actual monomania. Master Hall detected it, though none of the Boy dreamed of anything of the kind. As the fastened itself upon the old man, he formed a distaste for society, which of itself grew until it made him the we found in the Maine woods during this summer. There he spent his hours in reading, and in studying animal and bird life,—trees and woodcraft. He never lost his gentle affection for his fellow men, and at long visited his former acquaintances; but, though he left his latchstring outside and gave welcome to whoever called, he preferred to make his place far from the haunts of men.
What mind can understand its own mysteries? While the current of life was moving with the old man, Doctor Spellman put up his summer home on the shore of the lake not very distant from the cabin of Uncle Elk. The latter set out to call upon them almost as soon as he learned of their arrival. While too far for the couple to see him, he caught sight of them sitting in front of their structure, the doctor smoking and the wife engaged in work. Their child was playing with a doll indoors, and Uncle Elk saw nothing of her, nor did 307he learn of her existence until several days later, when occurred the incident that will be told further on.
It was that sight of the man and woman that gave a curious twist to the delusion of the hermit. He was startled by the woman’s striking resemblance to his own daughter who had been lost at sea years before. He formed a sudden and intense dislike of the man who had presumed to marry a person that resembled his child, and it was painful to look upon the wife who bore such a resemblance. No brain, except one already somewhat , could have been the victim of so queer a process. Such, however, was the fact and of itself it explains a number of incidents that otherwise could not be explained.
It will be that thus far Uncle Elk had not seen the little child who was the image of her mother, and since the parents quickly learned of his strange and took care to avoid meeting him, it is unlikely that in the ordinary course of events he ever would have come face to face with the little one.
Now nothing is more evident than the of my trying to describe the mental through which this man passed on that last and most night of his life. I base what I say upon that which Doctor Spellman told me as the result of his , during the succeeding months, of the most singular case with which he was ever concerned, and even the brilliant medical man could not be absolutely certain of all his conclusions. However, they sound so reasonable that I now give them.
Throughout the afternoon, Uncle Elk was in spirits, as is sometimes true of a person who is on the eve of some event or experience of decisive importance to himself. He was subject to a physical which led him to a fire on his broad , in front of which as the night shadows gathered, he seated himself in his cushioned rocking chair. As time passed he gave himself over to of the long ago with its sorrowful memories.
He had sat thus for some time when he was roused by the of the latchstring. He turned his head to welcome his 309caller, when he was so startled that at first he could not believe what his eyes told him. A little girl, of the age and appearance of the one who had gone down in the depths of the sea, stood before him.
“Good evening,” called the child in her gentle voice; “how do you do?”
“Who are you? What’s your name?” the
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