er used to go before she
became finally a New Churchwoman--the chances of that person's going
straight to heaven would be so uncommonly good that he need have very
little anxiety about it. He asked his mother if she did not think so
too, holding by her hand as they came out of church together, and he
noticed the sort of gravity and even pain with which she and his father
received this revelation of his darkling mind. They tried to teach him
what they thought of such things; but though their doctrine caught his
fancy and flattered his love of singularity, he was not proof against
the crude superstitions of his mates. He thought for a time that there
was a Bad Man, but this belief gave way when he heard his father
laughing about a certain clergyman who believed in a personal devil.

The boys said the world was going to be burned up some time, and my boy
expected the end with his full share of the trouble that it must bring
to every sinner. His fears were heightened by the fact that his
grandfather believed this end was very near at hand, and was prepared
for the second coming of Christ at any moment. Those were the days when
the minds of many were stirred by this fear or hope; the believers had
their ascension robes ready, and some gave away their earthly goods so
as not to be cumbered with anything in their heavenward flight. At home,
my boy heard his father jest at the crazy notion, and make fun of the
believers; but abroad, among the boys, he took the tint of the
prevailing gloom. One awful morning at school, it suddenly became so
dark that the scholars could not see to study their lessons, and then
the boys knew that the end of the world was coming. There were no
clouds, as for a coming storm, but the air was blackened almost to the
dusk of night; the school was dismissed, and my boy went home to find
the candles lighted, and a strange gloom and silence on everything
outside. He remembered entering into this awful time, but he no more
remembered coming out of it than if the earth had really passed away in
fire and smoke.

He early heard of forebodings and presentiments, and he tried hard
against his will to have them, because he was so afraid of having them.
For the same reason he did his best, or his worst, to fall into a
trance, in which he should know everything that was going on about him,
all the preparations for his funeral, all the sorrow and lamentation,
but should be unable to move or speak, and only be save