the Pythoness in the moment of inspiration.

Mrs. Sullivan looked at her with awe, fear, and a strong mixture of
curiosity; she had often heard that the _Lianhan Shee_ had, through
means of the person to whom it was bound, conferred wealth upon several,
although it could never render this important service to those who
exercised direct authority over it. She therefore experienced something
like a conflict between her fears and a love of that wealth, the
possession of which was so plainly intimated to her.

"The money," said she, "would be one thing, but to have the _Lianhan
Shee_ planted over a body's shouldher--och; the saints preserve us!--no,
not for oceans' of hard goold would I have it in my company one minnit.
But in regard to the money--hem!--why, if it could be managed widout
havin' act or part wid that thing, people would do anything in rason and
fairity."

"You have this day been kind to me," replied the woman, "and that's
what I can't say of many--dear help me!--husht! Every door is shut in
my face! Does not every cheek get pale when I am seen? If I meet a
fellow-creature on the road, they turn into the field to avoid me; if I
ask for food, it's to a deaf ear I speak; if I am thirsty, they send
me to the river. What house would shelter me? In cold, in hunger, in
drought, in storm, and in tempest, I am alone and unfriended, hated,
feared, an' avoided; starving in the winter's cold, and burning in the
summer's heat. All this is my fate here; and--oh! oh! oh!--have mercy,
tormentor--have mercy! I will not lift my thoughts there--I'll keep the
paction--but spare me now!"

She turned round as she spoke, seeming to follow an invisible object,
or, perhaps, attempting to get a more complete view of the mysterious
being which exercised such a terrible and painful influence over her.
Mrs. Sullivan, also, kept her eye fixed upon the lump, and actually
believed that she saw it move. Fear of incurring the displeasure of what
it contained, and a superstitious reluctance harshly to thrust a person
from her door who had eaten of her food, prevented her from desiring the
woman to depart.

"In the name of Goodness," she replied, "I will have nothing to do wid
your gift. Providence, blessed be his name, has done well for me an'
mine, an' it mightn't be right to go beyant what it has pleased him to
give me."

"A rational sentiment!--I mean there's good sense in what you say,"
answered the stranger: "but you need not be a