they did themselves) broke down ignominiously. The class to
which she belonged had to read a difficult chapter of Scripture in
rotation, and the various members spent an arduous Sabbath afternoon
counting out verses according to their seats in the pew, and practicing
the ones that would inevitably fall to them. They were too ignorant to
realize, when they were called upon, that Rebecca's absence would make
everything come wrong, and the blow descended with crushing force when
the Jebusites and Amorites, the Girgashites, Hivites, and Perizzites
had to be pronounced by the persons of all others least capable of
grappling with them.

Self-punishment, then, to be adequate and proper, must begin, like
charity, at home, and unlike charity should end there too. Rebecca
looked about the room vaguely as she sat by the window. She must give
up something, and truth to tell she possessed little to give, hardly
anything but--yes, that would do, the beloved pink parasol. She could
not hide it in the attic, for in some moment of weakness she would be
sure to take it out again. She feared she had not the moral energy to
break it into bits. Her eyes moved from the parasol to the apple-trees
in the side yard, and then fell to the well curb. That would do; she
would fling her dearest possession into the depths of the water. Action
followed quickly upon decision, as usual. She slipped down in the
darkness, stole out the front door, approached the place of sacrifice,
lifted the cover of the well, gave one unresigned shudder, and flung
the parasol downward with all her force. At the crucial instant of
renunciation she was greatly helped by the reflection that she closely
resembled the heathen mothers who cast their babes to the crocodiles in
the Ganges.

She slept well and arose refreshed, as a consecrated spirit always
should and sometimes does. But there was great difficulty in drawing
water after breakfast. Rebecca, chastened and uplifted, had gone to
school. Abijah Flagg was summoned, lifted the well cover, explored,
found the inciting cause of trouble, and with the help of Yankee wit
succeeded in removing it. The fact was that the ivory hook of the
parasol had caught in the chain gear, and when the first attempt at
drawing water was made, the little offering of a contrite heart was
jerked up, bent, its strong ribs jammed into the well side, and
entangled with a twig root. It is needless to say that no
sleight-of-hand performer, howev