efore as the first chill had passed off, and he had
thawed out a few words for immediate use he asked for a little of
that commodity.

When as he announced that he desired to know about the present
well or ill of some absent friends, and that clairvoyance was the
branch of her business which would on this occasion be called
into requisition, she rose from her seat, walked to the door,
never taking her eyes from the hands and pockets of her customer,
and called to some one to come in. In obedience to the summons,
the frowzy girl entered; this latter individual, since her first
appearance, had taken off her apron and pinned some kind of a
collar around her neck, but had not yet found time to comb her
hair, which was exceedingly demonstrative, and forced itself upon
attention.

Mrs. Seymour seated herself in a rocking-chair and closed her
eyes; the plump girl stood behind her and pressed her thumbs
firmly upon the temples of Mrs. S. for about two minutes, during
which time this latter lady lost every instant something of life
and animation, until at last she froze up entirely. Then the
frowzy girl made one or two mysterious mesmeric passes over the
sleeping beauty from her head to her feet, to fix her in the
iceberg state; then placing the hand of Mrs. S. in the palm of
the customer, she left the room.

The worst of it was that Mrs. Seymour's hand is not an agreeable
one to hold; it is cold and flabby, and not suggestive of
vitality. Her face, too, had become pallid and corpse-like, and
her thin blue lips were not pleasant to regard. Johannes was
puzzled; he didn't know what to do with the flabby hand, and how
he was to get any information about absent friends from a
fast-asleep woman he did not, as yet, exactly comprehend. At this
juncture, the lips asked, "Where am I to go to?" The sitter
suppressed a sulphurous reply, and substituted, "To Minnesota."
Thereupon, without any more definite direction as to what part of
that rather extensive territory she was expected to visit, she
sent her spirit off, and immediately uttered these words:

"I see two old people, two _very_ old people--one is a man and
one is a woman; one of them has been very sick of bilious fever,
but is now better, and will soon be quite well again. I can't
tell exactly how these people look except that they are very old
and both are very grey. They may be husband and wife. I think
they are. They are both sitting down now. I also see two young
peop