ome amongst you all
to bring, perhaps, death with me. I waited in the house till the
men and the cart came, and they brought a coffin and took poor
Patience away. They told me then that soon there would be no more
coffins, and that they would have to bury without them."

Janet paused and shuddered strongly.

"O mother, mother, mother!" she wailed, "what shall I do? What will
become of me? Shall I have to die in the streets, or to go to the
pest house? Oh, why do such terrible things befall us?"

The mother was weeping now, but the next moment she felt the touch
of her husband's hand upon her shoulder, and his voice said in its
quiet and authoritative way:

"What means all this coil and to do? Why does the child speak thus?
Tell me all; I must hear the tale.

"Janet, my girl, never ask the why and the wherefore of any of the
Lord's just judgments. It is for us to bow our heads in repentance
and submission, trusting that He will never try us above what we
are able to bear."

Comforted by the sound of her father's voice, Janet repeated her
tale to him in much the same words as before, the father listening
in thoughtful silence, without comment or question; till at the
conclusion of the tale he said to his wife:

"Go upstairs and bring down with thee my heavy riding cloak which
hangs in the press;" and when she had obeyed him, he added, "Now go
up to thy room, and shut thyself in till I call thee thence."

Implicit obedience to her husband was one of Rachel's
characteristics. Although she longed to know what was to be done,
she asked no questions, but retired upstairs and fell on her knees
in prayer. The master of the house went to a great cask of vinegar
which stood in the corner, and after pretty well saturating the
heavy cloak in that pungent liquid, he unbarred the door, and
beckoning to his daughter to approach, threw about her the heavy
mantle and bid mer follow him.

He led her through the house and up to a large spare guest chamber,
rather away from the other sleeping chambers of the house, and he
quickly brought to her there a bath and hot water, and certain
herbs specially prepared--wormwood, woodsorrel, angelica, and so
forth. He bid her wash herself all over in the herb bath, wrapping
all her clothing first in the cloak, which she was to put outside
the door. Then she was to go to bed, whilst all her clothing was
burnt by his own hands; and after that she must submit to remain
shut up in that room,