the cargoes of ships, among silks, and brocades,
and other costly merchandise which was imported for the rich people
to wear. And sometimes it started up seemingly of its own accord, and
nobody could tell whence it came. The physician, being called to attend
the sick person, would look at him, and say, "It is the small-pox! Let
the patient be carried to the hospital."

And now this dreadful sickness had shown itself again in Boston. Cotton
Mather was greatly afflicted for the sake of the whole province. He had
children, too, who were exposed to the danger. At that very moment he
heard the voice of his youngest son, for whom his heart was moved with
apprehension.

"Alas! I fear for that poor child," said Cotton Mather to himself. "What
shall I do for my son Samuel?"

Again he attempted to drive away these thoughts by taking up the book
which he had been reading. And now, all of a sudden, his attention
became fixed. The book contained a printed letter that an Italian
physician had written upon the very subject about which Cotton Mather
was so anxiously meditating. He ran his eye eagerly over the pages; and,
behold! a method was disclosed to him by which the small-pox might be
robbed of its worst terrors. Such a method was known in Greece. The
physicians of Turkey, too, those long-bearded Eastern sages, had been
acquainted with it for many years. The negroes of Africa, ignorant as
they were, had likewise practised it, and thus had shown themselves
wiser than the white men.

"Of a truth," ejaculated Cotton Mather, clasping his hands and looking
up to heaven, "it was a merciful Providence that brought this book under
mine eye. I will procure a consultation of physicians, and see whether
this wondrous inoculation may not stay the progress of the destroyer."

So he arose from Grandfather's chair and went out of the library. Near
the door he met his son Samuel, who seemed downcast and out of spirits.
The boy had heard, probably, that some of his playmates were taken ill
with the small-pox. But, as his father looked cheerfully at him, Samuel
took courage, trusting that either the wisdom of so learned a minister
would find some remedy for the danger, or else that his prayers would
secure protection from on high.

Meanwhile Cotton Mather took his staff and three-cornered hat and
walked about the streets, calling at the houses of all the physicians in
Boston. They were a very wise fraternity; and their huge wigs, and black