he could not help thinking of the gipsy's ill-omened words as, passing over the swollen stream, he felt the light bridge swaying in the wind. He passed on quickly, but was suddenly brought to a standstill by the sight of a woman's figure gliding across from the opposite bank to meet him, a figure so darkly clad, that its black robes were only just discernible in the deep gloom of the night. It drew near, and he dimly saw the white face of a woman raised to his, and felt, before he had time to utter a word, a soft bundle placed in his arms--a bundle of shawls and wrappings, within which he felt the form of a little child. "Take it across for me," the woman said imploringly; "we have struggled long enough in the storm! Take my baby across the river, and the blessing of Heaven shall be with you!" "All right, good mistress," said Jack cheerily, trying in vain to distinguish the woman's features in the black darkness; "'tis a wild night, surely, for you to be out with the little one. I have the babe safe in my arms; prithee follow me, and I will verily soon have you both in as good a shelter as Jack the boatman can offer." And cradling his little burden softly in his arms, Jack turned, and strode back across the quivering bridge towards home, now and then addressing a word of encouragement to the woman behind him. The noise of the wind and water drowned the sound of her footsteps, and it was not till the bridge was crossed, and he had set foot on the grassy bank, that, to his amazement, he perceived she was not following him. He gazed back across the bridge, through the darkness, but no figure was visible, and clasping the child closer to him, to shelter it from the driving rain, he quickly retraced his steps to the opposite bank, looking carefully, as he went, into the raging water below him, on either side, with a dread lest he should discern some portion of the woman's dress tossing to and fro on the surface, to tell him that she had flung herself into the torrent, while he had walked on with the child. "No, I should have heard that," he said to himself; "the wind kept me from hearing her footsteps, but I should surely have heard that. No, she must verily have run back into the woods, as soon as I stepped onwards with the babe, and where will I find her, whatever?" There was no building on the other side of the river into which she could have fled for a hiding-place, and the narrow white road, which led away from the river to the woods, revealed nothing to Jack's searching eye. The darkness was so great that he could see very little but its dim white outline, and it would have been very easy for a fleet foot to speed along to the woods, or find a hiding-place under the thick hedge-rows. "I should surely have turned and kept an eye upon her," he said; "but I made no doubt that she was following. What will I do, indeed? It is but little gain to search for any one in this