Athaliah [to JOASH]- Who is thy father, child?

Answer, thyself.

Jehosheba

Athaliah

Heaven till this very day

Why in such haste to answer for the boy?
It is for him to speak.

Jehosheba

From one so young What revelation canst thou hope to gain? Athaliah

The young are innocent; and simple truth Their honest frankness knows not to disguise: Let him explain all that concerns himself. Jehosheba [aside]

Great God, put now Thy wisdom in his mouth! Athaliah

Joash

When I was born.

Where is thy home? This can at least be told.

This Temple is my home; none else I know. Athaliah

Joash

Where wast thou found? Hast thou been told of that?

Athaliah

Whose guardian hands preserved thine infant years?

Joash

When did God e'er neglect His children's needs?
The feathered nestlings He provides with food,
And o'er all nature spreads His bounty wide.
Daily I pray; and with a Father's care
He feeds me from the sacred offerings.
Athaliah

Abner

New wonder comes to trouble and perplex!
The sweetness of his voice, his infant grace
Unconsciously make enmity give way
To-can it be compassion that I feel!

Madam, is this thy dreaded enemy?

"Tis evident thy dreams have played thee false;
Unless thy pity, which now seems to vex,
Should be the fatal blow that terrified.

Athaliah [to JoASH and JEHOSHEBA] -
Why are ye leaving?

Jehosheba

Thou hast heard his tale:

His presence longer might be troublesome.

Athaliah [to JOASH]

Joash

Nay, child, come back. What dost thou all the day?

I worship God, and hear His Law explained;

His holy volume I am taught to read,

And now to write it has my hand begun.

Athaliah

Joash

What says that Law?

That God requires our love,
Avenges, soon or late, His Name blasphemed,
Is the protector of the fatherless,

Resists the proud, the murderer punishes.

Athaliah

I sometimes help th' High Priest to offer salt

Or incense, hear His lofty praises sung,
And see His stately ritual performed.

Athaliah

Joash

What! Hast thou pastime none more sweet than that
Sad lot for one so young; but come with me,
And see my palace and my splendor there.

Joash

There I should hear another's name invoked.

I serve my god: and thou shalt worship thine.
There are two powerful gods.

Athaliah

Joash

Thou must fear mine; He only is the Lord, and thine is naught.

Pleasures untold will I provide for thee.

The happiness of sinners melts away.

Athaliah

Of sinners, who are they?

Jehosheba

A child

Athaliah

Joash

Madam, excuse

I like to see how ye have taught him;
And thou hast pleased me well, Eliakim,
Being, and that past doubt, no common child.
See thou, I am a queen, and have no heir;
Forsake this humble service, doff this garb,
And I will let thee share in all my wealth;
Make trial of my promise from this day;
Beside me at my table, everywhere,
Thou shalt receive the treatment of a son.

I recognize the lessons ye have given.
Yes, this is how, corrupting guileless youth,
Ye both improve the freedom ye enjoy,
Inciting them to hatred and wild rage,
Until they shudder but to hear my name.
Jehosheba -

Can our misfortunes be concealed from them?

All the world knows them; are they not thy boast? Athaliah

Yea; with just wrath, that I am proud to own,

My parents on my offspring I avenged.
Could I see sire and brother massacred,
My mother from the palace roof cast down,
And the same day beheaded all at once
(Oh, horror!) fourscore princes of the blood;
And all to avenge a pack of prophets slain,
Whose dangerous frenzies Jezebel had curbed?
Have queens no heart, daughters no filial love,
That I should act the coward and the slave,
Too pitiful to cope with savages,

By rendering death for death, and blow for blow?
David's posterity from me received

Treatment no worse than had my father's sons!
Where should I be to-day, had I not quelled

All weakness and a mother's tenderness,

Had not this hand of mine like water shed

My own heart's blood, and boldly checked your plots?

Your god has vowed implacable revenge;

Snapt is the link between thine house and mine,
David and all his offspring I abhor,

Tho' born of mine own blood I own them not.

Thy plans have prospered. Let God see, and judge!

Your god, forsooth, your only refuge left,
What will become of his predictions now?
Let him present you with that promised King,
That Son of David, waited for so long,
We meet again. Farewell. I go content:
I wished to see, and I have seen.

Abner [to JEHOSHEBA]

I undertook to keep, I thus resign. Jehosheba [to JEHOIADA]

The trust

[Exit.

My lord, didst hear the Queen's presumptuous words? Jehoiada

I heard them all, and felt for thee the while.

These Levites were with me ready to aid
Or perish with you, such was our resolve.

[To JOASH, embracing hir
May God watch o'er thee, child, whose courage bore,
Just now, such noble witness to His Name.

Thy service, Abner, has been well discharged:

I shall expect thee at th' appointed hour.

I must return, this impious murderess

Has stained my vision, and disturbed my prayers;

The very pavement that her feet have trod

My hands shall sprinkle o'er with cleansing blood.

THE TRIAL OF DELIVERANCE WENTWORTH.

BY PAULINE BRADFORD MACKIE.

(From "Ye Lyttle Salem Maide.")

[PAULINE BRAdford Mackie was born in Fairfield, Connecticut, 1873; sides in Toledo, Ohio. She has written "Mademoiselle de Berny" and " Little Salem Maide."]

AT LAST one fair June day brought her trial.

Her irons were removed, and she was conducted by the co stable with a guard of four soldiers to the meeting-house. the crowd that parted at the great door to make way for th were many familiar faces, but all were stern and sad. In eyes she read her accusation. The grim silence of this gene condemnation made it terrible; the whispered comments a the looks cast upon her expressed stern pity mingled w abhorrence.

On the outskirts of the throng she observed a young m of ascetic face and austere bearing, clothed in black vel with neckbands and tabs of fine linen. He wore a flow white periwig, and was mounted on a magnificent white hor In one hand he held the reins, in the other, a Bible.

Upon entering the meeting-house, Deliverance was c ducted by the Beadle to a platform and seated upon a st above the level of the audience and in plain sight.

In front of the pulpit, the seven judges seated in a

1 By permission of Lamson, Wolffe & Co.; copyright, 1898.