Page:Salem - a tale of the seventeenth century (IA taleseventeenth00derbrich).pdf/300

 to what a bitter awakening!—to find her nearest and dearest, her only known relative, languishing in chains and bondage, and under condemnation to death.

But it was worse than useless to attempt to keep the awful truth from her—it must be made known; and Alice—the petted child, the creature hitherto of the sunshine and the summer—had to listen to the communication which must strike the summer and the sunshine out of all her future life.

But the moment she was able to stand alone she insisted upon going at once to her grandmother; and dreadful as their meeting must be, her friends felt there was nothing to be gained by delaying it; while Alice felt as if every moment of that doomed life was far too precious to her to be wasted apart; and soon the morning, noon, and evening found the faithful child feebly creeping, with weak, tottering steps, back and forth, to and from the miserable prison, where her presence brought the only ray of comfort that could enter those melancholy walls; and even the hardened jailers grew to know and pity the beautiful and desolate young creat