ay. Most of their mothers and fathers
had scouted the idea. Josie Dean was very positive it couldn't be--her
father had been going over the Bible and the Millerites had made a big
mistake.

"And girls," said Josie earnestly, "St. John, one of the disciples of
our Saviour, lived to be a hundred years old. Some people taught that
the world would come to an end before he died. And now it's 1843, and
it's stood all this while, though every now and then there's been an
excitement about it. And I ain't going to be afraid at all, there now!"

The little girl wondered whether she would be afraid. But Friday evening
the boys were full of it, and Steve said it was nonsense. She crept up
into her father's lap and asked him in a tremulous whisper if he was
afraid.

"No, dear," he answered, pressing her to his heart.

"But if it _should_ come."

"Well--I'd take my little girl and mother and Margaret----"

"And what would you do?" as he made a long pause.

"I'd beg to be taken into heaven. And we would all be together. I think
God would be good to us."

"And the boys."

"Yes, the boys." He wondered within himself if they were all fit for
heaven. But he was quite sure the little girl was.

There was a very great excitement. For months there had been meetings of
exhortation and prophesying, and appeals to conscience, to terror, to
the desire of being saved from impending destruction. Last winter there
had been revivals everywhere, yet during the summer thoughtful people
had questioned whether the moral tone of the community had been any
higher. There were heroic souls, that always rise to the surface in
times of spiritual agitation. There were others moved by any excitement,
who seized on this with a kind of ungovernable rapture.

No one spoke of it in Sunday-school. Hanny brought home "Little Blind
Lucy," and was so lost in its perusal that she hardly wanted to leave
off for half an hour with Joe. But her mother let her look over to see
whether Lucy really did have her eyesight restored. She was so sleepy
that when she had said her little prayer she felt quite sure that God
would take care of her and the beautiful world He had made. It would be
cruel to burn it all up.

But the children went to school on Monday. Martha washed as usual. She
did think it would be a waste of labor and strength if the world came to
an end, though she was sure clean clothes would burn up quicker, and if
it had to be, one might as well have i