r or call "Mary" at nights, ever
so gently, in a moment I am by his side.'

'And canst thou ease him?' her aunt enquired.

'That I can,' answered Mary proudly. 'Often I can ease him, or warm
his poor cold hands, or soothe him till he sleeps again, for he grows
weaker after this long imprisonment.'

'Small wonder,' replied her aunt. 'If thou hadst seen the dungeon
where they set him first--foul, beneath the floor, with no window,
only a grating overhead to give him air. There were a dozen or more
felons and murderers packed in it too, along with him, so that he had
not enough room even to lie down. But there--it is not fit for a child
like thee to know the half of all he hath undergone in the cause of
Truth.'

'Dear, dear grandfather,' said Mary wistfully, 'yet he never
complains. He says always that he "doth esteem the locks and bolts as
jewels," since he doth endure them for his Master's sake.'

'Ay, and what was his crime for which he suffered at first in that
foul place? Nothing but his giving of thanks one night after supper at
an inn. His accusers must needs affirm this to be "preaching at a
conventicle." Hist! we had better be silent now we have reached the
town. I must leave thee at the gate of the gaol, and go on my way,
while thou goest thine. Be sure and say to my dear father that I and
thy mother will visit him as soon as ever the Governor shall permit.'

A few minutes later they stopped; Joan Dewsbury took the basket from
her arm and gave it to her niece. 'Farewell, dear child,' she said
cheerily, as the porter opened the tall portal of the prison; but her
eyes grew dim as she watched the small figure disappear behind the
heavy bolts and bars.

'She is a good maid, and a brave one,' she said to herself as she
passed down the street between the timbered houses to her home. 'Yet
she is not as other children are. For all the comfort she is to my
dear father, I would fain think of her safe once more at home with her
sisters. Right glad I am that her mother hath sent me word by a sure
hand to say she cometh speedily to see of her condition for herself.
The Governor is right, the gaol is no place for a child, nor is it the
life for her either. She liveth too much in her own thoughts. This
morn on our walk to the farm when I asked her wherefore she seemed
sorrowful, she replied that she was "troubled in her conscience, that
she thought she would not live long and wanted satisfaction from the
Lord as to whi