or was
commensurate with the credulity of the auditor. Without knowing it, she
was a vampire, feeding on the life-blood of a young and innocent heart,
and drying up the fountain of its joys.

Helen listened till the last sound of Miss Thusa's footsteps died away
on the ear, then plunging deeper into the bed, drew the blankets over
head and ears, and lay immovable as a snow-drift, with the chill dew of
terror oozing from every pore.

"I'm not a good girl," said the child to herself, "and God wont send the
angels down to take care of me to-night. I played going to meeting with
my dolls last Sunday, and Miss Thusa says that was breaking the
commandments. I'll say my prayers over again, and ask God to forgive
me."

Little Helen clasped her trembling hands under the bed-cover, and
repeated the Lord's Prayer as devoutly and reverentially as mortal lips
could utter it, but this act of devotion did not soothe her into
slumber, or banish the phantom that flitted round her couch. Finding it
impossible to breathe under the bed-cover any longer, and fearing to die
of suffocation, she slowly emerged from her burying-clothes till her
mouth came in contact with the cool, fresh air. She kept her eyes
tightly closed, that she might not see the _darkness_. She remembered
hearing her brother, who prided himself upon being a great
mathematician, say that if one counted ten, over and over again, till
they were very tired, they would fall asleep without knowing it. She
tried this experiment, but her heart kept time with its loud, quick
beatings; so loud, so quick, she sometimes mistook them for the skeleton
foot-tramps of the traveler. She was sure she heard a rustling in the
chimney, a clattering against the walls. She thought she felt a chilly
breath sweep over her cheek. At length, unable to endure the awful
oppression of her fears, she resolved to make a desperate attempt, and
rush down stairs to her mother, telling her she should die if she
remained where she was. It was horrible to go down alone in the
darkness, it was more horrible to remain in that haunted room. So,
gathering up all her courage, she jumped from the bed, and sought the
door with her nervous, grasping hands. Her little feet turned to ice, as
their naked soles scampered over the bare floor, but she did not mind
that; she found the door, opened it, and entered a long, dark passage,
leading to the stairway. Then she recollected that on the left of that
passage there w