Chapter 14 Jem's Interview With Poor Esther

Know the temptation ere you judge the crime!

Look on this tree--'twas green, and fair and graceful;

Yet now, save these few shoots, how dry and rotten!

Thou canst not tell the cause. Not long ago,

A neighbour oak, with which its roots were twined,

In failing wrenched them with such cruel force,

That though we covered them again wi