I presume my reader will smile at this, and exclaim, “How absurd!” Yes, to you it is absurd; but to the mind of a child who placed the utmost confidence in his veracity, it was an evidence that he was invested with supernatural powers.  For myself I believed every word he said, and nothing would have tempted me to disobey him.  Perfect obedience he considered the highest attainment, and, to secure this, the greatest of all virtues, no means were thought too severe.  We were frightened and punished in every possible way.

But, though Father Darity acted on the one great principle with the Romanists, that the “end sanctifies the means,” he was in general a much kinder man than Priest Dow.  He urged us on with our catechism as fast as possible, telling us, as a motive to greater diligence, that the bishop was soon to visit us, and that we could not be admitted to his presence until we had our prayers and catechism perfectly.

One day, when we were in the yard at play, I told one of the little girls that I did not like to live there; that I did not like one of the people in the house; that I wished to return to my father, and I should tell him so the first time he came to see me.

“Then you like to live with your father?” said she.  I told her I did, for then I could do as I pleased, without the fear of punishment.  She said that she did not like to live there any better than I did.  I asked her why she did not go away, if she disliked to stay.  She replied, “I should like to go away well enough, if I had any friends to go to; but my father and mother are both dead, and I have no home but this; so you see I must stay here if they wish me to; but there is one consolation; if we are good girls, and try to do right, they will be kind to us.”  I made no further remark; but the moment we returned to the house she told the Superior what I said, taking good care not to repeat her own expressions, and leaving the Superior to infer that she had made no reply.

I saw at once by the stern look that came over the lady’s face that she was very angry; and I would gladly have recalled those few hasty words had it been in my power to have done so.  She immediately left the room, but soon returned with Priest Dow.  His countenance also indicated anger, as he took hold of my arm and led me to a darkened room, in which several candles were burning.

Here I saw three scenes, which I think must have been composed of images, pictures, and curtains.  I do not pretend to describe them correctly, I can only tell how they appeared to me.

The first was an image of Christ on the cross, with his arms extended as we usually see them in pictures.  On his right hand was a representation of heaven, and on the left, of hell.  Heaven was made to appear like a bright, beautiful, and glorious place.  A wall of pink color surrounded it, and in the center was a spring of clear water.  In the midst of this spring stood a tree, bearing on every limb a lighted candle, and on the top, the image of Christ and a dove.