hand, endeavored to reassure him.

"Nay, if I intended to do you harm, little lad, the readiest way were
to leave you here. What! you do not fear to sit beneath the gallows on a
new-made grave, and yet you tremble at a friend's touch. Take heart,
child, and tell me what is your name, and where is your home!"

"Friend," replied the little boy, in a sweet, though faltering voice,
"they call me Ilbrahim, and my home is here."

The pale, spiritual face, the eyes that seemed to mingle with the
moonlight, the sweet airy voice, and the outlandish name almost made the
Puritan believe that the boy was in truth a being which had sprung up
out of the grave on which he sat. But perceiving that the apparition
stood the test of a short mental prayer, and remembering that the arm
which he had touched was life-like, he adopted a more rational
supposition. "The poor child is stricken in his intellect," thought he,
"but verily his words are fearful, in a place like this." He then spoke
soothingly, intending to humor the boy's fantasy.

"Your home will scarce be comfortable, Ilbrahim, this cold autumn night,
and I fear you are ill provided with food. I am hastening to a warm
supper and bed, and if you will go with me, you shall share them!"

"I thank thee, friend, but though I be hungry, and shivering with cold,
thou wilt not give me food nor lodging," replied the boy, in the quiet
tone which despair had taught him, even so young. "My father was of the
people whom all men hate. They have laid him under this heap of earth,
and here is my home."

The Puritan, who had laid hold of little Ilbrahim's hand, relinquished
it as if he were touching a loathsome reptile. But he possessed a
compassionate heart, which not even religious prejudice could harden
into stone.

"God forbid that I should leave this child to perish, though he comes of
the accursed sect," said he to himself. "Do we not all spring from an
evil root? Are we not all in darkness till the light doth shine upon us?
He shall not perish, neither in body, nor, if prayer and instruction may
avail for him, in soul." He then spoke aloud and kindly to Ilbrahim, who
had again hid his face in the cold earth of the grave. "Was every door
in the land shut against you, my child, that you have wandered to this
unhallowed spot?"

"They drove me forth from the prison when they took my father thence,"
said the boy, "and I stood afar off, watching the crowd of people; and
when they were gon