“I want no medicine.”
“You will take this. You can do nothing for your niece, can you?”
“Nothing but fret,” said Mrs. Pepperill.
“That will not help her. You believe her to be innocent?” asked the rector.
“I am sure of it.”
“Nothing you can say or do will prove it?”
“Nothing; but if I’m called to bear witness, and I must speak the truth, then what I say may go against her. That troubles me, terrible. I’m mazed wi’ the thought. You see, I looked, and there was a can’l-end in the lantern when she took it; and I saw there was none at all when she brought back the lantern. I don’t want to say it, as it may go against her; but I can’t go against my oath and against the truth.”
“Of course not. Speak out what is true.”
“And I can’t have no rest thinkin’, and thinkin’, and frettin’ about it all.”
“No, Mrs. Pepperill; but you will rest and sleep peacefully after you have taken my prescription’a sovereign one, as many a vexed soul has found’the only one possible in many a case’‘Cast all your care upon God, for He careth for you.’”