As the Puritan entered he thrust aside his cloak and displayed Ilbrahim 's face to the female . `` Dorothy , here is a little outcast whom Providence hath put into our hands , '' observed he . `` Be kind to him , even as if he were of those dear ones who have departed from us . '' `` What pale and bright-eyed little boy is this , Tobias ? '' she inquired . `` Is he one whom the wilderness-folk have ravished from some Christian mother ? '' `` No , Dorothy ; this poor child is no captive from the wilderness , '' he replied . `` The heathen savage would have given him to eat of his scanty morsel and to drink of his birchen cup , but Christian men , alas ! had cast him out to die . '' Then he told her how he had found him beneath the gallows , upon his father 's grave , and how his heart had prompted him like the speaking of an inward voice to take the little outcast home and be kind unto him . He acknowledged his resolution to feed and clothe him as if he were his own child , and to afford him the instruction which should counteract the pernicious errors hitherto instilled into his infant mind . Dorothy was gifted with even a quicker tenderness than her husband , and she approved of all his doings and intentions . `` Have you a mother , dear child ? '' she inquired . The tears burst forth from his full heart as he attempted to reply , but Dorothy at length understood that he had a mother , who like the rest of her sect was a persecuted wanderer . She had been taken from the prison a short time before , carried into the uninhabited wilderness and left to perish there by hunger or wild beasts . This was no uncommon method of disposing of the Quakers , and they were accustomed to boast that the inhabitants of the desert were more hospitable to them than civilized man . `` Fear not , little boy ; you shall not need a mother , and a kind one , '' said Dorothy , when she had gathered this information . `` Dry your tears , Ilbrahim , and be my child , as I will be your mother . '' The good woman prepared the little bed from which her own children had successively been borne to another resting-place .
Before Ilbrahim would consent to occupy it he knelt down , and as XXXXX listed to his simple and affecting prayer she marvelled how the parents that had taught it to him could have been judged worthy of death .
Christian Dorothy Ilbrahim Providence Puritan Quakers Tobias birchen left resting-place