turns to various passages of the Scriptures, and reads portions here and
there. The people do not hear any thing that he says and does, nor is it
necessary, according to their ideas of the service, that they should do
so; for they know very well that the priest is consecrating the bread or
the wine, and changing it into the body and the blood of Christ, in
order that it may be ready for the sacrifice. Then, when the wine is
changed, the priest drinks it in a very solemn manner, raising it to his
lips three several times, so as to take it in three portions. Then he
holds the cup out to his assistant again, who pours a little water into
it from his other vessel; and the priest then, after moving the cup
round and round, to be sure that the water mixes itself well with the
wine which was left on the inner service of the cup, drinks that too. He
does this in order to make sure that no portion of the precious blood
remains in the cup. He then wipes it out carefully with his napkin, and
puts it away."

"Yes," said Rollo, "I saw all those things. And after he had got
through, he covered the cup with a cloth, embroidered with gold, and
carried it away."

"And after that," continued Rollo, "the assistant, with an extinguisher
on the top of a tall pole, put out the candles, and then _he_ went
away."

"Yes," said Mr. George, and so the service was concluded.

"Thus you see," continued Mr. George, "that for all that the people come
for, to such a service as that, it was not necessary that they should
hear at all. There was not any thing to be _said to_ them. There was
only something to be _done for_ them; and so long as it was done, and
done properly, they standing by and consenting, it was not of much
consequence whether they could see and hear or not. So the priest turned
his face away from them towards the altar; and when he had any thing to
say, he spoke the words in a very low and inaudible voice."

"It is impossible," said Rollo, after a short pause, "that the wine
should become blood, and the wafer flesh, while they yet look just as
they did before."

[Illustration: THE EMIGRANTS.]

"True," said Mr. George, "it seems impossible to us, who hear of it for
the first time, after we have grown up to years of discretion; but that
does not prevent its being honestly believed by people that have been
taught to consider it true from their earliest infancy."

"Do you suppose the priests themselves believe it?" asked Rollo.