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164 his place was ready for him there, and you may be sure the boy was none too anxious to leave it on that day. And afterwards He led him into Hell, and there the peasant's mother was sitting.

So the peasant boy began to beseech Christ to have mercy on her. "Have mercy on her, Lord!"

And Christ bade the lad plait a rope of brome-grass. The peasant plaited the rope of brome-grass, and the Lord must have supervised.

And he brought it to Christ, Who said: "Now you have been weaving this rope for thirty years and have laboured sufficiently for your mother, rescue her out of Hell."

And the son dangled the rope down to the mother who was sitting in the boiling pitch. And the rope never burned nor singed: so did God provide. And the son tried and tried to drag his mother up, and caught hold of her head, and she cried out to him: "You savage dog! Why, you are almost choking me!" Then the rope broke off, and the guilty soul once more flew down into the burning pitch.

"She had not desired to escape," said Christ, "and all of her heart is down there, and she must stay there for all eternity."