"Nothing of the sort," said Bart; "it is the remains of old Bullock's 'gundalow,' that has been sinking and swimming, like old John Adams in the Revolution, these five years past. Don't let me think to-night, Uncle Jonah, that anything from my father's hand came to take me into the depths of this pond." The craft occupied by the party was a broad, scow-like float, with low sides, steady, and of considerable capacity. At the bow was a raised platform, covered with gravel, on which stood a fire-jack. The crew were lying on the silent water, engaged with their lines, when Bart so unceremoniously joined them. He went forward to a vacant place and lay down in the bottom, declining to take a line. "What is the matter, Bart?" asked the Doctor. "I don't know. I've been wandering about in the woods, and I must have met something, or I have lost something,--I don't know which." "I guess you saw the wolverine," said Theodore. "I guess I did;" and pretty soon, "Doctor, is this your robe? Let me cover myself with it; I am cold!" and there was something almost plaintive in his voice. "Let me spread it over you," said the Doctor, with tenderness. "What ails you, Bart? are you ill?" "If you left your saddle-bags at home, I think I am; if they are here, I am very well. Doctor," he went on, "can a man have half of his faculties shut off and retain the others clear and strong?" "I don't know,--perhaps so; why?" "Well, I feel as if one of your astringents had placed its claws on a full half of me and drawn it all into a pucker; and the other half is in some way set free, and I feel clairvoyant." "What do you think you can see?" asked the Doctor. "A young man--quite a young man--blindfolded, groping backward in the chambers of his darkened soul, and trying to escape out of it," said Bart. "What a queer fancy!" said the Doctor. "He must have an unusually large soul," said Uncle Jonah. "Every soul is big enough for the man to move in, small as it is," said Bart. "What is your youth doing in his, now?" asked the Doctor. "He is sitting down, resigned," answered Bart. "If his soul was dark, why was he blindfolded?" asked the Doctor. "Well, I don't know. For the same reason that men with eyes think that a blind man cannot see so well in the dark, perhaps," was the answer. "And see here," looking into the water, "away down here is a beautiful star. There, I can blot it out with my hand! and see, now, how I can shatter it into wavelets of stars, and now break it into a hundred, by merely disturbing the water where I see it, 'like sunshine broken in a rill.' Who knows but it may be the just-arrived light of an old, old star which has just come to us? How easy to climb back on one of these filmy rays, myriads of millions of leagues, home to its source! I will take off the bandage and let the poor boy see it, and climb if he may."