wax figure of him in one of the Boston museums, representing a solemn,
dark-visaged person, in a minister's black gown, and with a black-letter
volume before him.

"It is difficult, my children," observed Grandfather, "to make you
understand such a character as Cotton Mather's, in whom there was so much
good, and yet so many failings and frailties. Undoubtedly, he was a pious
man. Often he kept fasts; and once, for three whole days, he allowed
himself not a morsel of food, but spent the time in prayer and religious
meditation. Many a live-long night did he watch and pray. These fasts and
vigils made him meagre and haggard, and probably caused him to appear as
if he hardly belonged to the world."

"Was not the witchcraft delusion partly caused by Cotton Mather?" inquired
Laurence.

"He was the chief agent of the mischief," answered Grandfather; "but we
will not suppose that he acted otherwise than conscientiously. He believed
that there were evil spirits all about the world. Doubtless he imagined
that they were hidden in the corners and crevices of his library, and that
they peeped out from among the leaves of many of his books, as he turned
them over, at midnight. He supposed that these unlovely demons were
everywhere, in the sunshine as well as in the darkness, and that they were
hidden in men's hearts, and stole into their most secret thoughts."

Here Grandfather was interrupted by little Alice, who hid her face in his
lap, and murmured a wish that he would not talk any more about Cotton
Mather and the evil spirits. Grandfather kissed her, and told her that
angels were the only spirits whom she had any thing to do with. He then
spoke of the public affairs of the period.

A new war between France and England had broken out in 1702, and had been
raging ever since. In the course of it, New England suffered much injury
from the French and Indians, who often came through the woods from Canada,
and assaulted the frontier towns. Villages were sometimes burnt, and the
inhabitants slaughtered, within a day's ride of Boston. The people of New
England had a bitter hatred against the French, not only for the mischief
which they did with their own hands, but because they incited the Indians
to hostility.

The New Englanders knew that they could never dwell in security, until the
provinces of France should be subdued, and brought under the English
government. They frequently, in time of war, undertook military
expeditions ag