For her voice had been already heard in many lands of Christendom , and she had pined in the cells of a Catholic Inquisition before she felt the lash and lay in the dungeons of the Puritans . Her mission had extended also to the followers of the Prophet , and from them she had received the courtesy and kindness which all the contending sects of our purer religion united to deny her . Her husband and herself had resided many months in Turkey , where even the sultan 's countenance was gracious to them ; in that pagan land , too , was Ilbrahim 's birthplace , and his Oriental name was a mark of gratitude for the good deeds of an unbeliever . * * * * * When Pearson and his wife had thus acquired all the rights over Ilbrahim that could be delegated , their affection for him became , like the memory of their native land or their mild sorrow for the dead , a piece of the immovable furniture of their hearts . The boy , also , after a week or two of mental disquiet , began to gratify his protectors by many inadvertent proofs that he considered them as parents and their house as home . Before the winter snows were melted the persecuted infant , the little wanderer from a remote and heathen country , seemed native in the New England cottage and inseparable from the warmth and security of its hearth . Under the influence of kind treatment , and in the consciousness that he was loved , Ilbrahim 's demeanor lost a premature manliness which had resulted from his earlier situation ; he became more childlike and his natural character displayed itself with freedom . It was in many respects a beautiful one , yet the disordered imaginations of both his father and mother had perhaps propagated a certain unhealthiness in the mind of the boy . In his general state Ilbrahim would derive enjoyment from the most trifling events and from every object about him ; he seemed to discover rich treasures of happiness by a faculty analogous to that of the witch-hazel , which points to hidden gold where all is barren to the eye . His airy gayety , coming to him from a thousand sources , communicated itself to the family , and Ilbrahim was like a domesticated sunbeam , brightening moody countenances and chasing away the gloom from the dark corners of the cottage . On the other hand , as the susceptibility of pleasure is also that of pain , the exuberant cheerfulness of the boy 's prevailing temper sometimes yielded to moments of deep depression . His sorrows could not always be followed up to their original source , but most frequently they appeared to flow -- though Ilbrahim was young to be sad for such a cause -- from wounded love . The flightiness of his mirth rendered him often guilty of offences against the decorum of a Puritan household , and on these occasions he did not invariably escape rebuke . But the slightest word of real bitterness , which he was infallible in distinguishing from pretended anger , seemed to sink into his heart and poison all his enjoyments till he became sensible that he was entirely forgiven . Of the malice which generally accompanies a superfluity of sensitiveness Ilbrahim was altogether destitute . When trodden upon , he would not turn ; when wounded , he could but die . His mind was wanting in the stamina of self-support . It was a plant that would twine beautifully round something stronger than itself ; but if repulsed or torn away , it had no choice but to wither on the ground . Dorothy 's acuteness taught her that severity would crush the spirit of the child , and she nurtured him with the gentle care of one who handles a butterfly . Her husband manifested an equal affection , although it grew daily less productive of familiar caresses .
The feelings of the neighboring people in regard to the Quaker infant and his XXXXX had not undergone a favorable change , in spite of the momentary triumph which the desolate mother had obtained over their sympathies .
England Ilbrahim Inquisition Pearson Puritan dungeons enjoyments escape flightiness protectors