missed the
gentle presence of their aunt. They shut up the house at dark, and
prepared their simple supper, and whilst they were eating it,
Benjamin said:

"What shall we do tomorrow when we have finished our work?"

"I know what I should like to do," said Joseph promptly.

"What, brother?" asked Benjamin eagerly.

"Marry, what I want to do is to go and see that farm house hard by
Clerkenwell which they have turned into a pest house, and where
they say they have dozens of plague-stricken people brought in
daily. I have never seen a pest house. I would fain know what it
looks like. And we might get more news there of the truth of those
things that they say about the plague in the city. Ben, what sayest
thou?"

Ben's eyes were round with wonder and excitement. The boys had all
the careless daring and eager curiosity which belong to boy nature.
They were by this time so much habituated to living under
conditions of risk and a certain amount of peril, that a little
more or a little less did not now seem greatly to matter.

"Would our good aunt approve?" asked the younger boy.

"I trow not," answered Joseph frankly; "women are always timid, and
she would say, perchance, that unless duty called us it were
foolish to adventure ourselves into danger. But I would fain see
this place, Ben, boy. If in time to come we live to be men, and
folks ask us of these days of peril and sickness, I should like to
have seen all that may be seen of these great things. Our father
went many times to the pest houses within the city and came away no
worse. Why should thou or I suffer? We have our vinegar bottles and
our decoctions, and methinks we know enough now not to run needless
risks."

Benjamin was almost as eager and curious as his brother. The spirit
of adventure soon gets into the hearts of boys and runs riot there.
Before they went to bed they had fully decided to make the
excursion; and they rose earlier next morning so as to get all
their work done while it was yet scarce light, so that they might
start for their destination before the heat of the day came on.

It was pleasant walking through the dewy fields, and hard indeed
was it to imagine that death and misery lurked anywhere in the
neighbourhood of what was so smiling and gay. The boys knew what
paths to take, nor was the distance very great. Benjamin on his
former visit to his aunt had spent a day with the good people at
this very farm house. Now, alas, all had been