One evening, in the beginning of June, I had stayed out very late

with Mary Ann in the wood; we had, as usual, separated ourselves

from the others, and had wandered far; so far that we lost our way,

and had to ask it at a lonely cottage, where a man and woman lived,

who looked after a herd of half-wild swine that fed on the mast in

the wood. When we got back, it was after moonrise: a pony, which

we knew to be the surgeon's, was standing at the garden door. Mary

Ann remarked that she supposed some one must be very ill, as Mr.

Bates had been sent for at that time of the evening. She went into

the house; I stayed behind a few minutes to plant in my garden a

handful of roots I had dug up in the forest, and which I feared

would wither if I left them till the morning. This done, I lingered

yet a little longer: the flowers smelt so sweet as the dew fell; it

was such a pleasant evening, so serene, so warm; the still glowing

west promised so fairly another fine day on the morrow; the moon

rose with such majesty in the grave east. I was noting these things

and enjoying them as a child might, when it entered my mind as it

had never done before:"How sad to be lying now on a sick bed, and to be in danger of

dying! This world is pleasant--it would be dreary to be called from

it, and to have to go who knows where?"

And then my mind made its first earnest effort to comprehend what

had been infused into it concerning heaven and hell; and for the

first time it recoiled, baffled; and for the first time glancing

behind, on each side, and before it, it saw all round an unfathomed

gulf: it felt the one point where it stood--the present; all the

rest was formless cloud and vacant depth; and it shuddered at the

thought of tottering, and plunging amid that chaos. While pondering

this new idea, I heard the front door open; Mr. Bates came out, and

with him was a nurse. After she had seen him mount his horse and

depart, she was about to close the door, but I ran up to her.

"How is Helen Burns?"

"Very poorly," was the answer.

"Is it her Mr. Bates has been to see?"

"Yes."

"And what does he say about her?"

"He says she'll not be here long."




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