as regarded the various parties brought before my observation. An
eating cancer was on the community, and so far as the eye could
mark its destructive progress, the ravages were tearful. That its
roots were striking deep, and penetrating, concealed from view, in
many unsuspected directions, there could be no doubt. What
appeared on the surface was but a milder form of the disease,
compared with its hidden, more vital, and more dangerous advances.

I could not but feel a strong interest in some of these parties.
The case of young Hammond had, from the first, awakened concern;
and now a new element was added in the unlooked-for appearance of
his mother on the stage, in a state that seemed one of partial
derangement. The gentleman at whose office I met Mr. Harrison on
the day before--the reader will remember Mr. H. as having come to
the "Sickle and Sheath" in search of his son--was thoroughly
conversant with the affairs of the village, and I called upon him
early in the day in order to make some inquiries about Mrs.
Hammond. My first question, as to whether he knew the lady, was
answered by the remark:

"Oh, yes. She is one of my earliest friends."

The allusion to her did not seem to awaken agreeable states of
mind. A slight shade obscured his face, and I noticed that he
sighed involuntarily.

"Is Willy her only child?"

"Her only living child. She had four; another son, and two
daughters; but she lost all but Willy when they were quite young.