sow, is there a saint in the whole calendar would think it worth while
to work a miracle on such a wicked unbeliever as I am?"

"There's one way, as I've heard tell; that if ye take a sprig of St
John's wort, and say three _credos_ over it and a _paternoster_, and
lay it under your pillow, you shall dream of the remedy by which a
cure may be wrought."

Ellen did not immediately reply to this suggestion, for she thought
that no special revelation was needed to point out a remedy.

"I would give the world if I had it to know what my cousin William is
doing," said she in a musing fit, as though some sudden fancy had
crossed her.

"And why may you not?" said the ready-witted maid; "yea, as sure as St
Peter's at Rome, and that's not to be gainsaid either by Turk or
infidel."

"What, dost thou learn these crotchets in thy creed?" said Ellen.

"Nay," replied the other, "it is a bit of conjuration not enjoined by
the Church; a kind of left-handed intercourse which we get by stealth
from other guess-folk, I reckon, than the holy saints."

"Am I to dream of this too?"

"Why, nay; you may be wide awake for that matter; but you must just
take a phoenix feather in one hand, a cockatrice tooth in your mouth,
and breathe on the glass, when, as the breath departs, they say your
true love will appear therein."

"But he is not my true love, wench; and so I may not bind him with
such spell, mayhap."

"How know ye that, fair mistress?"

"Go to; thou dost wound and vex me with thy questions. Hath he not
been gone these five months, and never a word, good or bad, hath been
rendered to me? Nay, did he not, ere he went, so deport himself with
most cold and supercilious arrogance, and even with neglect and
disdain?"

"Because in your own bright self, lady, he had the first example; for
of all the gay sparks that fluttered about you there was never a one
o' them that had to endure such chilling looks and so haughty a
bearing as were usually reserved for him."

"Hold thy tongue; thou dost presume too much, methinks, upon thy
former freedoms, wench. I like not such unguarded speech."

Bridget was silent at this rebuke; and, whatever was uppermost in her
thoughts, no more was said that night.

The following days Ellen was much worse. The disease appeared to be
rapidly gaining strength, and the maiden seemed doomed to an early
grave.

"And isn't it a silly thing for one like you to die so soon?" said
Bridget; "I can ask for you