that she was very
welcome, and seemed to have no thought but for her idiot son, who
remained sunk in the same abject condition. They brought him wine,
which revived him enough to set him crying a little, but he would take
no notice of anything. For a moment the woman softened, when Dick and
Elsie came in and thanked her prettily for the kindness that she had
shown to them, and she tried to rouse her son to take notice of them.
But he only went on crying; and she was evidently much distressed.

Then the Corporal came to say that Mrs. Fry was come and had brought
Tommy with her; on which Colonel Fitzdenys told the woman outright that
she had been accused of bewitching the boy and depriving him of his
speech. The woman's hard manner at once returned, and she laughed loud
and scornfully.

"That's only their lies," she said. "How should I take away a boy's
speech? they'm all agin me and my boy; that's all it is."

"Well, they say that he can't speak," said Colonel Fitzdenys. "You
shall tell him to speak yourself, and then we shall be able to judge."

So Mrs. Fry was called in and told to hold her tongue, and Tommy, who
had hidden himself in her skirts, was brought forward. The woman no
sooner saw him than her eyes gleamed, and she said: "That's the one who
throwed stones at my boy and called mun thafe. He not spake? He can
spake well enough if he has a mind, I'll warrant mun."

"But his mother says that he cannot," said Colonel Fitzdenys. "See for
yourself," and he led the trembling boy forward. "Tell him to speak to
you."

"Spake, boy," said the woman not very amiably. "You can spake well
enough, can't 'ee?"

"Yas," said Tommy nervously, to his mother's intense surprise.

"There! what did I tell 'ee?" said the woman contemptuously. "'Twas
only their lies. He can spake so well as you and I."

Mrs. Fry, much taken aback, seized hold of the boy in amazement; but he
begged so hard to be let go as to leave no doubt that his speech was
restored; and Lady Eleanor lost no time in sending him off with his
mother.

Then Lady Eleanor again thanked the idiot's mother for all that she had
done for her own children, and asked what she could do for her; but the
woman would accept no money nor reward, nothing but a few cakes which
the children brought to her to take home for her son. Lady Eleanor
offered her everything that she could think of, even to a remote
cottage in the woods where she would certainly live u