Year: 1878

had not at least tried the effect Of giving
him the warming.


l was glad when my business was at
length dispatched and could leave the
city but it was not until several weeks
after this that my cousin started for
France. The twelve days that elapsed
between the sailing of his steamer and
that on which its safe arrival was re-
ported in the New York papers were
very long. And when it was all over,
how angry l was at myself that should
have paid any heed to such a vague,
and, as it now seemed, transparently
spurious sort of warning.


My next thought was to send to
friend the letter of which 1 still held the
third copy tits power of self-movement
forsook it when L left New York;, with
the request that he would ascertain for
me if there were any such person as A.
b. Sears, protesting to be a" "Spiritual
medium" After some weeks the answer
was returned:


Yes, A. b. Sears is the nom-de-
gnerre of Abiathar Parsons who, un-
der his proper name boarded in the same
house where you boarded last spring."


Abiathar Parsons Then 1 remem-
bered. In the days when Annie H
and ,as recently-separated schoolmates,
were carrying on an active correspond
ence by mail, this Parsons was clerk
in the employ of the storekeeper who
acted as postmaster in our native viii
lage Upon inquiry, which / caused to
be made of the housekeeper at my late
lodgings, found that during my stay
in New York he had occupied the room
next to Mrs. Murray's parlor, and ON
the same floor with my room, and that
his place at table had been nearly oppo-
site my own. Parsons had not borne
the best of regulations during his clerk
ship with the postmaster, and after
stay of year or so had drifted away,
carrying his laziness and cunning to
more appreciative market. In the we'll
covered, forid-faced man with dark hair
had failed to recognize the lank, sal
low, red-haired youth whom had only
seen and hardly noticed behind the
counter Evidently his memory had
been better than mine, and from the
position of his room in relation to Mrs.
Murray's parlor he might easily have
overheard the conversations between my
cousin and myself relative to the former
returning to Europe. How Mr.. Parsons
obtained access to my room and bureau
drawers do not certainly know, but as
it seems that he had once occupied the
apartment for some weeks, it may not
be doing him injustice to suggest that he
then supplied himself with duplicate
keys, thinking that they might prove
useful in some possible contingencies.


Possessing, as he did, remarkable
facility in initiating handwritings =
facility which had more than once
turned the eye of suspicion upon the
postmaster's clerk = and remembering
that of Annie H, which must often
have passed through his hands, while
knowing that she had long since passed
away his cunning presented to Abiathar
Parsons = alias A. L. Sears-the idea
that as he knew me, and probably re-
membered many little things connected
with my family and early life which he
could use to advantage in trading upon
my credulity while he remained by mel
here was an excellent opportunity to
get little money and extend his repu-
tation as one whose predictions of the
future must be relied upon, seeing that
he knew SO much of the past.


If, by any chance, the steamer on
which my cousin had met with disaster
and he had failed to reach his home, 1
would probably have made no investi-
CATION, but have simply accepted the
communication as having been genu-
inc but simply unheeded warning from


the Spirit Land, and all the rest of my
life have been weighed down with n


burden of remorse as heavy as any ever


borne by an actual murderer.


The trick of Mr.. Parsons Sears was a
very simply one, now it has been told,
, and have not found it any easy task
to excuse myself to myself for the i'm
portance 1 attached to the supposed
warning and for the real suffering so


uselessly endured on account of it. But
since that time have felt much more
charity than before for those unfortu.
nate people who in hours of doubt, anx,
a iety and grief have resorted for knowl
edge or consolation to sources which in
their calmer moments the would have