"The deceased children, then, had absolutely no food given to them apart from what you had yourselves?" "Not a scrap, sir. Not a drop." "Except the pills." "Excepting them, in course, sir. None o' the rest of us wanted physic." "Where did you procure these pills?" She went into the history of the pills. Giving the full account of them, as already related. "By your own showing, witness, it must be three months, or thereabouts, since you had that box from Abel Crew," spoke the coroner. "How do you know that the two pills you administered to the deceased children came from the same box?" Hester Reed's eyes opened wide. She looked as surprised as though she had been asked whether she had procured the two pills from the moon. "Yes, yes," interposed one of the jury, "how do you know it was the same box?" "Why, gentlemen, I had no other box of pills at all, save that," she said, when her speech came to her. "We've had no physic but that in the cottage since winter, nor for ever so long afore. I'll swear it was the same box, sirs; there can't be no mistake about it." "Did you leave it about in the way of people?" resumed the coroner. "So that it might be handled by anybody who might come into your cottage?" "No, sir," she answered, earnestly. "I never kept the pill-box but in one place, and that was on the top of the high press upstairs out of harm's way. I put it there the first night Abel Crew gave it me, and when I wanted to get a pill or two out for my own taking, I used to step on a chair--for it's too high for me to reach without--and help myself. The box have never been took from the place at all, sir, till Tuesday night, when I brought it downstairs with me. When I've wanted to dust the press-top, I've just lifted the pill-box with one hand and passed the duster along under it with the other, as I stood on the chair. It's the same box, sir; I'll swear to that much; and it's the same pills." Strong testimony. The coroner paused a moment. "You swear that, you say? You are quite sure?" "Sir, I am sure and positive. The box was never took from its place since Abel Crew gave it me, till I reached up for it on Tuesday evening and carried it downstairs." "You had been in the habit of taking these pills yourself, you say?" "I took two three or four times when I first had 'em, sir; once I took three; but since then I've felt better and not wanted any." "Did you feel any inconvenience from them? Any pain?" "Not a bit, sir. As I said to Ann Dovey that night, when she asked whether they was fit pills to give the children, they seemed as mild as milk." "Should you know the box again, witness?" "Law yes, sir, what should hinder me?" returned Hester Reed, inwardly marvelling at what seemed so superfluous a question. The coroner undid the paper, and handed the box to her. She was standing close to him, on the other side his clerk--who sat writing down the evidence. "Is this the box?" he asked. "Look at it well."