ous hearts
and bounteous hands to meet the exigencies of every neighborhood; and
we may be sure that no householder of decent repute, however poor or
unlucky, and probably few others, even if a little tarnished in the
moral world's esteem, lacked some kind friend who saw to it, that the
accustomed turkey or chickens smoked on the board before the eyes of
his hungry children on that day, at least, of all the year.

But, unless respectable legends are to be peremptorily discredited, an
incident once took place in this Market Square, of which I doubt if any
other New England town can show the parallel. I am about to relate a
statement made to me, not many years ago, by an elderly gentleman of
excellent character and standing, a justice of the peace and of the
quorum, and a devout member of the Orthodox Church. The story was told
with all gravity and implicit confidence in its truth; and some may think
it exhibits in a striking light the extent of human credulity and the
imperfection of human testimony: "My father," said this worthy person,
"has often told me of being in Market Square when a man, a woman, and a
little dog appeared, and soon collected quite a crowd by the exhibition
of feats of jugglery. At length, after a due collection of tribute from
the standers-by, the man produced a ball of cord from his pocket, threw
it into the air, and began to ascend it, hand over hand. The woman
followed, and after her the little dog. While the crowd was gaping, in
expectation of the return of this mysterious trio, some one drove into
the market-place and inquired the occasion of this unusual congregation.
Upon being informed, he said, that he had just met such a party on the
road, about a mile from the town." I had read the most extraordinary
accounts, by British officers and others, of exhibitions like this, which
they alleged they had often witnessed in India. I remembered one, in
particular, where tigers and other unwelcome guests, and even the
somewhat unwieldy bulk of an elephant, had seemingly been brought down,
before their eyes, upon a cable fastened by some mysterious agency far
aloft; for I suppose it behooved to be made fast in some inconceivable
region of the upper air. But that a similar demonstration could have been
made in a sober New England town, at noonday, could scarcely fail to "put
me from my faith." It impressed me, however, as at least an extraordinary
relation, coming from such a source; and happening to me