g the graves of her children--

"Margaret! I could not help it. They would not let them lie beside
thee! They took them away in the cart. I would have sprung in after
them, but they held me back.

"Ah, woe is me! woe is me! There is no place for me either among
the living or the dead. All turn from me alike!"

The tears rolled down the poor man's face, his voice was choked
with sobs. He still continued to point and to cry out, and to
address some imaginary being whom he declared was wandering amongst
the tombs. The boys pressed near to look, for some in the crowd
suddenly made exclamations as though they had caught a glimpse of
the phantom; but look as they would the brothers saw nothing, and
Joseph asked of an elderly man in the little crowd what it all
meant.

"Methinks it means only that yon poor fellow has lost his reason,"
he answered, shaking his head. "His wife was one of the first to
die when the distemper broke out; and men called it only a fever,
though some said she had the tokens on her. She was buried here.
And it is but a week since the last of his children was taken--six
in two weeks; and he has escaped out of his house, and wanders
about the streets, and comes here every night, saying that he sees
his dead wife, and that she is looking for her children, and cannot
find them because they are lying in the plague pit. He is
distraught, poor fellow; but many men gather night by night to hear
him.

"For my part, I will come no more. Men are best at home in their
own houses; and you lads had best go home as fast as you can. It is
no place and no hour for boys to be abroad."

Joseph and Benjamin said a civil goodnight to the man, and taking
hands bent their steps northward once again. They were now close to
the open Moor Fields; and although there was still another region
of houses to be passed upon the other side, they felt that when
once they had passed the gate and the walls they should have left
the worst of the peril behind them.

CHAPTER X. WITHOUT THE WALLS.

Only one trifling incident befell the boys before they found
themselves without the city gate. They were proceeding down Coleman
Street towards Moor Gate, where they knew they should have to show
their pass, and perhaps have some slight trouble in getting
through, and were rehearsing such things as they had decided to
tell the guard at the gate, when the sound of a dismal howling
smote upon their ears, and they paused to look about