dear child, I can't lend you my books to play with if you drop them on
to the floor."

I took it up in my arms and carried it sorrowfully to Godfather Gilpin.
He was very kind, and said it was not hurt, and I might go on playing
with the others; but I could see him stroking its brown leather and gold
back, as if it had been bruised and wanted comforting, and I was far too
sorry about it to go on preaching, even if I had had anything to preach.

I picked up the smallest book I could see in the congregation, and sat
down and pretended to read. There were pictures in it, but I turned over
a great many, one after the other, before I could see any of them, my
eyes were so full of tears of mortification and regret. The first
picture I saw when my tears had dried up enough to let me see was a very
curious one indeed. It was a picture of two men carrying what looked
like another man covered with a blue quilt, on a sort of bier. But the
funny part about it was the dress of the men. They were wrapped up in
black cloaks, and had masks over their faces, and underneath the picture
was written, "_Fratelli della Misericordia_"--"Brothers of Pity."

I do not know whether the accident to Jeremy Taylor had made Godfather
Gilpin too anxious about his books to sleep, but I found that he was
keeping awake, and after a bit he said to me, "What are you staring so
hard and so quietly at, little Mouse?"

I looked at the back of the book, and it was called _Religious Orders_;
so I said, "It's called _Religious Orders_, but the picture I'm looking
at has got two men dressed in black, with their faces covered all but
their eyes, and they are carrying another man with something blue over
him."