om that date--strange
because they occurred with great frequency and were oddly repeated. The
children slept in what was called the East Room; the parents in an
adjoining chamber. At all hours of the night, almost, the sounds were
heard; but it happened that they always occurred when one or both of the
children were wide awake. The mother, in a statement which has been
published as one of the so-called proofs of the genuineness of these
manifestations, says that the sounds could with difficulty be located.
"Sometimes it seemed as if the furniture was moved; but on examination we
found everything in order. The children had become so alarmed that I
thought best to have them sleep in the room with us. * * * On the night of
the first disturbance we all got up and lighted a candle and searched the
house, the noises continuing during the time, and being heard near the
same place."

How natural it was that little children, being averse to sleeping away
from their elders in a dark room in a lone country neighborhood, should
take advantage of a pretext such as this to get their bed placed nearer to
that of their parents! Such, indeed, was the immediate result.

The third night of the "rappings" was the 31st of March, 1848. Mrs. Fox
says:

"_The children who slept in the other bed in the room heard the rappings
and tried to make similar sounds with their fingers._

"Katie exclaimed:

"'Mr. Splitfoot,' (the imaginary person who was supposed to make the
noises), 'do as I do;' clapping her hands. The sound instantly followed
her with the same number of raps; when she stopped, the sound ceased for a
short time. Then Margaret said in sport: 'Now, do just as I do; count one,
two, three, four,' striking one hand against the other at the same time,
and the raps came as before. * * * I then thought I could put a test that
no one in the place could answer. I asked the noises to rap my children's
ages, successively. Instantly, each one of my children's ages was given
correctly, pausing between them sufficiently long to individualize them
until the seventh, at which a longer pause was made, and then three more
emphatic raps were given, corresponding to the age of the little one that
died, which was my youngest child. I then asked: 'Is this a human being
that answers my questions so correctly?' There was no rap. I asked: 'Is
it a spirit? If so, make two raps,' which were instantly given as soon as
the request was made. I then said: 'If i