re
about to have a most interesting manifestation.--Pocahontas, do you wish
me to call over the names?"

Pocahontas did not object.

"Very well, then, you will tip when I come to the name of the medium
through whom you consent to kiss Miss Sarah Branly?"

Pocahontas certainly would.

"Is it Mrs. Colfodder?"

No reply.

"Is it I, Eugenia Turligood?"

No, it certainly was not.

"Well, then, I suppose it must be Mr. Stellato!"

Here the table was violently convulsed, as if somebody were pulling it
very hard upon Mr. Stellato's side, and somebody else holding it with
rigid firmness upon the other.

"_Is_ it Mr. Stellato?"

Convulsion repeated.

"I don't think you stopped long enough at Mrs. Colfodder's name,"
interposed Miss Branly. "I am sure the table was going to move, if you
had given it time."

"Nothing easier than to try again," responded Miss Turligood. "Is it
Mrs. Colfodder?"

This time the table fairly sprang into the lap of the lady indicated.

And so that worthy widow arose and saluted--or rather Pocahontas,
through her mediumship, arose and saluted--Miss Sarah Branly. And the
skeptic will please take notice that this extraordinary manifestation is
neither enlarged nor magnified, but that it actually happened precisely
as is here set down.

After this, Mr. Stellato, being put under inspiration, delivered a
discursive homily upon the "New Dispensation" which was at present
vouchsafed to the citizens of Foxden. He testified to the great relief
of getting clear of the "Old Theology,"--meaning thereby such
interpretations of Scripture as are held by the mass of our New-England
churches. Moreover, he would announce his personal satisfaction in
having, under spiritual guidance, eradicated every vestige of belief in
hell,--a circumstance upon which, it is needless to say, that a
gentleman of his profession might be honestly congratulated. With a
view, as I could not help thinking, to my peculiar necessities, Stellato
finally enlarged upon what he termed "the principle of the thing," or,
as he otherwise phrased it, "a scientific explanation of the way the
spirits worked mediums,"--"_sperrets_" and "_meejums_" according to
celestial pronunciation, but I am loath to disturb the carnal
orthography. This philosophical exposition, drawled forth in
interminable sentences, was a dark doctrine to the uninitiated. There
was a good deal about "Essences," which, at times, seemed to relate to
the perfumery ve