Hester was now kneeling also, with her arms round her whose arms were about the body of her child. She did not speak to her, did not attempt a word of comfort, but wept with her: she too had loved little Moxy! she too had heard his dying words--glowing with reproof to her faithlessness who cried out like a baby when her father left her for a moment in the dark! In the midst of her loneliness and seeming desertion, God had these people already in the house for her help! The back-door of every tomb opens on a hill-top. With awe-struck faces the boys looked on. They too could now see Moxy's face. They had loved Moxy--loved him more than they knew yet. The woman at length raised her head, and looked at Hester. "Oh, miss, it's Moxy!" she said, and burst into a fresh passion of grief. "The dear child!" said Hester. "Oh, miss! who's to look after him now?" "There will be plenty to look after him. You don't think he who provided a woman like you for his mother before he sent him here, would send him there without having somebody ready to look after him?" "Well, miss, it wouldn't be like him--I don't think!" "It would _not_ be like him," responded Hester, with self-accusation. Then she asked them a few questions about their history since last she saw them, and how it was they had sunk so low, receiving answers more satisfactory than her knowledge had allowed her to hope. "But oh miss!" exclaimed Mrs. Franks, bethinking herself, "you ought not to ha' been here so long: the little angel there died o' the small-pox, as I know too well, an' it's no end o' catching!" "Never mind me," replied Hester; "I'm not afraid. But," she added, rising, "we must get you out of this immediately." "Oh, miss! where would you send us?" said Mrs. Franks in alarm. "There's nobody as 'll take us in! An' it would break both our two hearts--Franks's an' mine--to be parted at such a moment, when us two's the father an' mother o' Moxy. An' they'd take Moxy from us, an' put him in the hole he was so afeared of!" "You don't think I would leave my own flesh and blood in the cellar!" answered Hester. "I will go and make arrangement for you above and be back presently." "Oh thank you, miss!" said the woman, as Hester sat down the candle beside them. "I do want to look on the face of my blessed boy as long as I can! He will be taken from me altogether soon!" "Mrs. Franks," rejoined Hester, "you musn't talk like a heathen." "I didn't know as I was saying anything wrong, miss!" "Don't you know," said Hester, smiling through tears, "that Jesus died and rose again that we might be delivered from death? Don't you know it's he and not Death has got your Moxy? He will take care of him for you till you are ready to have him again. If you love Moxy more than Jesus loves him, then you are more like God than Jesus was!" "Oh, miss, don't talk to me like that! The child was born of my own body?"