I waited in the house till the men and the cart came, and they brought a coffin and took poor Patience away.

They told me then that soon there would be no more coffins, and that they would have to bury without them." Janet paused and shuddered strongly.
"O mother, mother, mother!" she wailed, "what shall I do?
What will become of me?
Shall I have to die in the streets, or to go to the pest house?
Oh, why do such terrible things befall us ?" The mother was weeping now, but the next moment she felt the touch of her husband's hand upon her shoulder, and his voice said in its quiet and authoritative way: "What means all this coil and to do?
Why does the child speak thus?
Tell me all; I must hear the tale.
"Janet, my girl, never ask the why and the wherefore of any of the Lord's just judgments.

It is for us to bow our heads in repentance and submission, trusting that He will never try us above what we are able to bear." Comforted by the sound of her father's voice, Janet repeated her tale to him in much the same words as before, the father listening in thoughtful silence, without comment or question; till at the conclusion of the tale he said to his wife: "Go upstairs and bring down with thee my heavy riding cloak which hangs in the press;" and when she had obeyed him, he added, "Now go up to thy room, and shut thyself in till I call thee thence." Implicit obedience to her husband was one of Rachel's characteristics.

Although she longed to know what was to be done, she asked no questions, but retired upstairs and fell on her knees in prayer.

The master of the house went to a great cask of vinegar which stood in the corner, and after pretty well saturating the heavy cloak in that pungent liquid, he unbarred the door, and beckoning to his daughter to approach, threw about her the heavy mantle and bid mer follow him.
He led her through the house and up to a large spare guest chamber, rather away from the other sleeping chambers of the house, and he quickly brought to her there a bath and hot water, and certain herbs specially prepared--wormwood, woodsorrel, angelica, and so forth.