in its train."

The boys were glad enough to make off, and found themselves for the
time being free of houses in the pleasant open Moor Fields, which
were familiar to them as the favourite gathering place of shopmen
and apprentices on all high days and holidays. The moon shone down
brightly again, although near her setting now; but before long the
dawn would begin to lighten in the east, and the boys cared no whit
for the semi-darkness of a summer's night.

Behind them still came the rumble of wheels, and they drew aside to
let the cart pass with its dreadful cargo. Behind it ran a small
black object, and Benjamin exclaimed:

"It is the little dog! O brother, let us follow and see what
becomes of him!"

The strange curiosity to see the burying place, which tempted only
too many to their death in those perilous days, was upon Joseph at
that moment. He desired greatly to see one of those plague pits,
and to watch the emptying of the cart at its mouth. Forgetting
their father's warnings, the brothers ran quickly after the cart,
which was easily kept in view, and soon saw it halt and turn round
at a spot where they could discern the outline of a great mound of
earth, and the black yawning mouth of what they knew must be the
pit.

Half terrified, half fascinated, they gripped each other by the
hand and crept step by step nearer. They took care to keep to the
windward of the pit, and were getting very near to it when the air
was rent by another of the doleful cries which they had heard
before, but which sounded so strange and mournful here that they
stopped short in terror at the noise. It seemed even to affect the
nerves of the bearers, for one of them exclaimed:

"It is that cur again, who has left the marks of his teeth in my
hand. If I could but get near him with my cudgel, he should never
howl again."

"I thought we had rid ourselves of the brute, but he must have
followed us. A plague upon his doleful voice! They say that it
bodes ill to hear a dog's howl at night. Perchance he will leap
down into the pit after his master. We will take good care he comes
not forth again if he does that."

With these words the rough fellows turned to the cart, which was
now at the edge of the pit, and finished the rude burial which was
all that could in those days be given to the dead. Every now and
then one of the men would aim a heavy stone at the poor dog, who
sat on the edge of the pit howling dismally. The creature, howe