Part 32 (1/2)

When we got back from Mount Vernon, and entered our boardin'-house, Cicely went right up to her room. But I, feelin' kinder beat out (eloquent emotions are very tuckerin' on a tower), thought I would set down a few minutes in the parlor to rest, before I mounted up the stairs to my room.

But truly, as it turned out, I had better have gone right up, breath or no breath.

For, while I was a settin' there, a tall, sepulchral lookin' female, that I had noticed at the breakfast-table, come up to me; and says she,- ”I beg your pardon, mom, but I believe you are the n.o.ble and eloquent Josiah Allen's wife, and I believe you are a stoppin' here.”

Says I calmly, ”I hain't a stoppin'-I am stopped, as it were, for a few days.”

”Wall,” says she, ”a friend of mine is comin' to-night, to my room, No. 17, to give a private seansy. And knowin' you are a great case to investigate into truths, I thought mebby you would love to come, and witness some of our glorious spirit manifestations.”

I thanked her for her kindness, but told her ”I guessed I wouldn't go. I didn't seem to be sufferin' for a seancy.”

”Oh!” says she: ”it is wonderful, wonderful to see. Why, we will tie the medium up, and he will ontie himself.”

”Oh!” says I. ”I have seen that done, time and agin. I used to tie Thomas J. up when he was little, and naughty; and he would, in spite of me, ontie himself, and get away.”

”Who is Thomas J.?” says she.

”Josiah's child by his first wife,” says I.

”Wall,” says she, ”if we have a good circle, and the conditions are favorable, the spirits will materialize,-come before us with a body.”

”Oh!” says I. ”I have seen that. Thomas J. used to dress up as a ghost, and appear to us. But he didn't seem to think the conditions wus so favorable, and he didn't seem to appear so much, after his father ketched him at it, and give him a good whippin'.” And says I firmly, ”I guess that would be about the way with your ghosts.”

And after I had said it, the idee struck me as bein' sort o' pitiful,-to go to whippin' a ghost. But she didn't seem to notice my remark, for she seemed to be a gazin' upward in a sort of a muse; and she says,-

”Oh! would you not like to talk with your departed kindred?”

”Wall, yes,” says I firmly, after a minute's thought. ”I would like to.”

”Come to-night to our seansy, and we will call 'em, and you shall talk with 'em.”

”Wall,” says I candidly, ”to tell the truth, bein' only wimmen present, I'll tell you, I have got to mend my petticoat to-night. My errents have took me round to such a extent, that it has got all frayed out round the bottom, and I have got to mend the fray. But, if any of my kindred are there, you jest mention it to 'em that she that wuz Samantha Smith is stopped at No. 16, and, if perfectly convenient, would love to see 'em. I can explain it to 'em,” says I, ”bein' all in the family, why I couldn't leave my room.”

[Ill.u.s.tration: THOMAS JEFFERSON S GHOST.]

Says she, ”You are makin' fun: you don't believe they will be there, do you?”

”Wall, to be honest with you, it looks dubersome to me. It does seem to me, that if my father or mother sot out from the other world, and come down to this boardin'-house, to No. 17, they would know, without havin' to be told, that I was in the next room to 'em; and they wouldn't want to stay with a pa.s.sel of indifferent strangers, when their own child was so near.”

”You don't believe in the glorious manifestations of our seansys?” says she.

”Wall, to tell you the plain truth, I don't seem to believe 'em to any great extent. I believe, if G.o.d wants to speak to a human soul below, He can, without any of your performances and foolishness; and when I say performences and when I say foolishness, I say 'em in very polite ways: and I don't want to hurt anybody's feelin's by sayin' things hain't so, but I simply state my belief.”

”Don't you believe in the communion of saints? Don't you believe G.o.d ever reveals himself to man?”

”Yes, I do! I believe that now, as in the past, the pure in heart shall see G.o.d. Why, heaven is over all, and pretty nigh to some.”

And I thought of Cicely, and couldn't help it.

”I believe there are pure souls, especially when they are near to the other world, who can look in, and behold its beauty. Why, it hain't but a little ways from here,-it can't be, sense a breath of air will blow us into it. It takes sights of preparation to get ready to go, but it is only a short sail there. And you may go all over the land from house to house, and you will hear in almost every one of some dear friend who died with their faces lit up with the glow of the light s.h.i.+nin' from some one of the many mansions,-the dear home-light of the fatherland; died speakin' to some loved one, gone before. But I don't believe you can coax that light, and them voices, down into a cabinet, and let 'em s.h.i.+ne and speak, at so much an evenin'.”

”I thought,” says she bitterly, ”that you was one who never condemned any thing that you hadn't thoroughly investigated.”