Page:Salem - a tale of the seventeenth century (IA taleseventeenth00derbrich).pdf/191

 yours appears to me premature—at least, I think you are nervous and causelessly alarmed. What possible danger can reach you, secure as you are in your social and moral position?"

"Not more secure than others have believed themselves to be, Jonathan. Oh, my brother! think of Mrs. Nurse—the purest, truest, humblest Christian; of high standing in the Church, and blameless in character. I knew her well. She was with me in many of my trials—she was at the birth of all my children; and in the dark days when it pleased God to take my precious ones from me, she was with me, sustaining my weaker faith and trembling spirits under sickness, suffering, and loss, by her more fervent piety and gentle ministrations. Oh! I knew her well; no child ever turned to its mother in surer confidence of finding the support and sympathy it needed than I did to her, and she never failed me; and where is she now? Snatched from the home of which she was the loved and loving centre; reviled and deserted by the neighbors she had served and blessed; excommunicated by