114 THE HISTORY OF

torn by the briars and brambles in the wood
through which I had passed; all my clothes
were still dripping with wet, and my eyes were
red and swelled with crying.

While the good woman took off my clothes,
and placed thein at the fire to dry, she looked
very hard at me.

“Alas!” said I, ‘“ well may you look at me;
and it would be natural for you to think the
worst of me. But, whatever my appearance
may be, I love my God; and, if you knew my
story, you would not blame me for what may
now seem very strange to you.” Then I began
to weep afresh.

The woman answered, that she hoped what
I said was true, for my own sake: then, seeing
that I was quite spent with grief, and with the
great fatigue which I had gone through, she
took me into a small room, where I was very
thankful to lie down on a straw bed.

Being greatly tired, I very soon fell asleep;
but I had many uneasy dreams, and awoke by
dawn of day.

I looked about me, and, for some time, could
not call to mind where I was. But when I re-
membered all that had passed the day before,
and thought of my unhappy situation, in a
strange place, without friends, without money,
(for I had lent all that I had left to my mis-
tress,) and not knowing what would become of
me, or how I should be able to earn my bread,
I felt much affected.

Then I arose from my bed, and, having
dressed myself, I took from my bundle my dear