cross the way. Just as he passed they were making a collection
for a poor scholar--and surely they that love the larning desarve to be
encouraged! Well, behold you, says one of them, 'will you remember the
poor scholar,' says he, 'and put something in the hat? You don't know,'
says he, 'but his prayers will be before you.' (* In the other world.)
'True enough, maybe,' says the man, 'and there's a crown to him, for
God's sake.' Well and good; the man died, and so did the wife; but the
very day before her departure, she got a scapular, and died in it. She
had one sister, however, a good crature, that did nothing but fast and
pray, and make her sowl. This woman had strong doubts upon her mind, and
was very much troubled as to whether or not her sister went to heaven;
and she begged it as a favor from the blessed Virgin, that the state of
her sister's sowl might be revaled to her. Her prayer was granted.
One night, about a week after her death, her sister came back to her,
dressed, all in white, and circled round by a veil of glory.

"'Is that Mary?' said the living sister.

"'It is,' said the other; 'I have got liberty to appear to you,' says
she, 'and to tell you that I'm happy.'

"'May the holy Virgin be praised!' said the other. 'Mary, dear, you have
taken a great weight off of me,' says she: 'I thought you'd have a bad
chance, in regard of the life you led.'

"'When I died,' said the spirit, 'and was on my way to the other world,
I came to a place where the road divided itself into three parts;--one
to heaven, another to hell, and a third to purgatory. There was a dark
gulf between me and heaven, and a breach between me and purgatory that
I couldn't step across, and if I had missed my foot there, I would have
dropped into hell. So I would, too, only that the blessed Virgin put my
own scapular over the breach, and it became firm, and I stepped on it,
and got over. The Virgin then desired me to look into hell, and the
first person I saw was my own husband, standing with a green sod under
his feet! 'He got that favor,' said the blessed Virgin, 'in consequence
of the prayers of a holy priest, that had once been a poor scholar, that
he gave assistance to, at a collection made for him in such a chapel,'
says she, 'Then,' continued the sowl, 'Mary,' says she, 'but there's
some great change in the world since I died, or why would the people
live so long? It can't be less than six thousand years since I departed,
and yet I f