encounters, and also to
his timidity in regard to being alone at night and his belief in and
fear of the supernatural. He had heard Poe say, when grown, that the
most horrible thing he could imagine as a boy was to feel an ice-cold
hand laid upon his face in a pitch-dark room when alone at night; or to
awaken in semi-darkness and see an evil face gazing close into his own;
and that these fancies had so haunted him that he would often keep his
head under the bed-covering until nearly suffocated.

The restrictions sought to be placed upon Poe's associations and
amusements served only to render him more democratic. He, with two or
three of his young friends of congenial tastes, were fond of stealing
off for a bath in the river near _Rocketts_ or below _the Falls_, in
company with the hardy, adventurous boys of those localities, who were
known as "river rats." It was from them that he learned to swim, to row
and, when the river was low, to wade across its rocky bed to the willowy
islands and set fish-traps. When in Richmond in after years, he told how
he had met with some of these former companions, and how much he had
enjoyed talking with them about "old times" on the river.

As regards religious influences and teachings in the Allan home, it does
not appear that Edgar was especially subject to these. Mr. and Mrs.
Allan were members of St. John's Episcopal church and punctilious in all
church observances, and they required of Edgar a strict attendance at
Sunday school and his presence in the family pew during divine service.
But in those days it was not thought necessary for professed Christians
to deny themselves social pleasures. On Sundays luxurious dinners were
provided, to which friends were invited from church, and rides and
drives were indulged in. Edgar was sent to dancing school, and Mrs.
Allan had her dancing entertainments and her husband his card parties,
which were attended by some of the most prominent professional men of
the city; amusements which, as is well known, exposed Episcopalians to
the charge of worldliness by other denominations. At all these
entertainments wine flowed freely.

I have an impression, too vague to be asserted as fact, that Edgar Poe
was confirmed at the same time with his sister and Mary Mackenzie, at
St. John's church, and by the clergyman who had baptized them. To any
inquiry as to his religious denomination, he always answered, "I am an
Episcopalian." But it was often remarked u