should be imperilled through the course of action he himself
intended to take.

When he took boat with his apprentices, he offered to Joseph to
accompany his companions and remain under the charge of the farmer
and his wife at Greenwich; but the boy begged so earnestly to
remain at home with the rest, that he was permitted to do so. Truth
to tell, Joseph was more fascinated than alarmed by the thought of
the advance of the dreaded plague, and was by no means anxious to
be taken away from the city when all the world was saying that such
strange things would be seen ere long. The lad felt so safe beneath
the care of wise and loving parents, that he would never of his own
will consent to leave them.

The moment the party had started by boat, the shop being that day
shut for the first time, albeit for some days nothing had been
stirring in the way of custom--Joseph darted away down a network of
alleys hard by in search of his younger brother Benjamin, who was
apprenticed to a carpenter in Lad Lane, off Wood Street, and
therefore much nearer to the infected parishes than the house on
the bridge. Benjamin was sure to know the latest news as to the
spread of the pestilence. Joseph was of opinion that it was all
rather fine fun, especially since it seemed like to get him a spell
of unwonted holiday.

Already as he passed through the streets he noted a great many
empty and shut-up houses. Men were going about with grave and
anxious faces. Often they would look askance at some passerby who
might be walking a little feebly or unsteadily, and once Joseph saw
a man some fifty paces in advance of him stagger and fall to the
ground with a lamentable cry.

Instead of flying to his assistance, all who saw him fled in
terror, crying one to the other, "It is the pestilence! Send for
the watch to get him away!"

And presently there came two men who lifted him up and carried him
away, but whether he was then alive or dead the boy did not know,
and a great awe fell upon him; for he had never seen such a thing
before, and could not understand how death could come so suddenly.

"Is it always so with them?" he asked of a woman who was craning
her head out of a window to see where the bearers were taking him.

"I cannot tell," she answered. "They say that there be many walking
about amongst us daily in the streets who carry death to all in
their breath and in their touch, and yet they know it not
themselves, and none know it till the