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A GRUESOME DANCE.
I rose to resume my journey, and walked many a desert mile.

How I longed for a mountain, or even a tall rock, from whose summit I might see across the dismal plain or the dried-up channels to some bordering hope! Yet what could such foresight have availed me?
That which is within a man, not that which lies beyond his vision, is the main factor in what is about to befall him: the operation upon him is the event.

Foreseeing is not understanding, else surely the prophecy latent in man would come oftener to the surface! The sun was half-way to the horizon when I saw before me a rugged rocky ascent; but ere I reached it my desire to climb was over, and I longed to lie down.

By that time the sun was almost set, and the air had begun to grow dark.