"Best be gone before it comes through, lads.

It carries death in its train." The boys were glad enough to make off, and found themselves for the time being free of houses in the pleasant open Moor Fields, which were familiar to them as the favourite gathering place of shopmen and apprentices on all high days and holidays.

The moon shone down brightly again, although near her setting now; but before long the dawn would begin to lighten in the east, and the boys cared no whit for the semi-darkness of a summer's night.
Behind them still came the rumble of wheels, and they drew aside to let the cart pass with its dreadful cargo.

Behind it ran a small black object, and Benjamin exclaimed: "It is the little dog! O brother, let us follow and see what becomes of him!" The strange curiosity to see the burying place, which tempted only too many to their death in those perilous days, was upon Joseph at that moment.

He desired greatly to see one of those plague pits, and to watch the emptying of the cart at its mouth.