o be good, and to
let my hair fall down, and to drop all my foolish notions; but 't was no
use. I saw something in the face of the Blessed Virgin that frightened
me, and I knew I was in for something. I didn't think my punishment
would be so dreadful."

Here the poor child sobbed again, and picked the coverlet mournfully as
she tried to choke down her emotion. I looked over at that statue of the
Blessed Virgin and shook my head reproachfully.

"Oh! Father, why does God punish us so terribly for such small sins?"
the poor girl went on. "And what must purgatory be, and what must hell
be when He punishes us so dreadfully here! I thought 't was all over and
my fear was vanishing, when one Sunday morning, dressing for Mass, I
noticed a tiny pimple here on my cheek. It wasn't as big as the head of
a pin; but it gave me great trouble. Not that I suspected anything; but
when our poor heads are turned with vanity, you don't know, Father, what
a worry these little blemishes are. I just touched it with my finger and
it bled. That night 't was an angry spot. I used everything I could
think of--lard, and butter, and ointment. No use. Every day it grew and
grew and grew into an ugly sore. Then I wrote, as Miss Levis advised
me, to a London doctor, recommended in the journals; he sent me a
prescription--"

"For nothing?" I interjected.

"No, indeed, Father. Before I was done with him it cost me a pound. But
I applied his cosmetics and became daily worse. Then my mother spoke of
making rounds. But I wouldn't leave her. I went to the school every
day, but I saw the girls watching me. I heard them whisper to each
other, and sometimes I caught their words. They weren't kind. Then I
stopped away. One day, while I was sitting at the door knitting,
suddenly the sun was darkened, and there was the dreadful face of that
woman over me.

"'I'm asking charity for God's sake,' she said.

"I got up humbly and gave her bread and twopence. She looked at me
keenly and said: 'God save you, alanna, and purtect you from misfortune.
Sure, 't was only a hasty word you said. God save you and purtect you,
alanna!'

"Then the frightful anger of God coming down upon me suddenly flashed
upon me, and I flung aside my knitting and rushed into this room, and
cried and screamed, and bit the counterpane until I tore it in threads,
and shrieked:--

"'Don't! don't, O Lord; Oh, don't! don't!'

"And then I turned to the Blessed Virgin and said the little pra