and fears were fixed upon the watchful figures which unlike any figures of this world by the deep gloom and � and them as well by their looks and and supernatural hovering above the floor were less as plainly to be seen as were the frames pieces bars and beams set up there to support the bells these hemmed them in a very forest of timber from the and depths of which as from among the boughs of a dead wood � r their phantom use they kept their and watch a blast of air � how cold and shrill � came moaning through the tower as it died away the great bell or the of the great bell spoke what visitor is this it said the voice was low and de and fancied that it sounded in the other figures as well i thought my name was called by the said raising his hands in an attitude of i hardly know why i am here or how i came i have listened to the these many years they have cheered me often and you have thanked them said the bell a thousand times the r � how n i am a poor man faltered and could only them in words and always so inquired the of the bell have you never done ua wrong in words v no cried eagerly never done us foul and false and wicked wrong in words f pursued tlie of the bell was to answer never but he stepped and was confused � the voice of time said the phantom cries to man advance time is for his advancement and improvement for his greater worth his greater happiness his better life his progress onward to that goal within its knowledge and its view and set there in the period when time and he began ages of darkness wickedness and violence have come and gone millions have su red lived and died to point the way before him who seeks to turn him back or stay him on his course a mighty engine which will strike the � dead and be the and the ever for its momentary check i never did so to my knowledge sir said it was quite by accident if i did wouldn t go to do it i m sure who puts into the mouth of time or of its servants said the of the bell a cry of for days which have had their trial and their failure and have left deep traces of it which the blind may see � a cry that only serves the present time by showing men how much it needs their help when any ears can listen to regrets for such a past � who does this does a wrong and you have done that wrong to us the s first excess of fear was gone but he had felt tenderly and gratefully towards the bells as you have seen and when the third quarter fi heard as one who had offended them so his heart was touched with and grief if you knew said clasping his hands earnestly � or perhaps you do know � if you knew how you have kept md company how often you have cheered me up when been low how you were quite the of my little daughter almost the only one she ever had when her mother died and she and were left alone � you won t bear for a hasty word who hears in us the one note disregard � r stem regard of any hope or joy or or sorrow of the many throng who hears us make response to any creed that human passions and affections as it the of miserable food on which humanity may pine and does us wrong that wrong you have done us v said the bell i have said � oh forgive me v who hears us echo the dull of the earth the down of crushed and broken natures formed to be raised up higher than such of the time can crawl or can conceive pursued the of the bell who does so does us wrong and you have done us wrong i not meaning it said in my ignorance not meaning it v lastly and most of all pursued the bell who turns his back upon the fallen and of his kind them as vile and does not trace and track with pitying eyes the un precipice by which they fell from � grasping in their fall some and of that lost soil and clinging to them still when bruised and dying in the gulf below does wrong to heaven and man to time and to eternity and you have done that wrong the spare me cried falling on his knees for s sake � said the shadow listen v cried the other shadows listen said a dear and like voice which thought he recognized as having heard the si n sounded faintly in the church below swelling by degrees the melody ascended to the roof and filled the choir and more and more it rose lip up up up higher higher higher up awakening agitated within the piles of oak the hollow bells the iron bound doors the stairs of solid st � ie until the tower walls were insufficient to contain it and it into the sky no wonder that an old man s breast could not contain a sound so vast and mighty it broke from that weak prison in a rush of tears and put his hands before his face listen said the shadow listen said the other shadows listen said the child s voice a solemn strain of blended voices rose into the tower it was a very low and mournful strain a and as he listened heard his child among the singers she is dead exclaimed the old man is dead her spirit calls to me i hear it 