f the mother.

As might be expected of a man who diverted himself in attending the
dissection of an Indian, which gruesome gayety exhilarated him into
spending a tidy sum--for him--on drinks and feeing "the maid;" and in
visiting his family tomb; and who, when he took his wife on a pleasure
trip to Dorchester "to eat cherries and rasberries," spent his entire
day within-doors reading that cheerful book, Calvin on Psalms;--in the
house of such a pleasure-seeker but small provision was made for the
entertainment or amusement of his children. They were sometimes led
solemnly to the house of some old, influential, or pious person, who
formally gave them his blessing. He took them also to some of the
funerals of the endless procession of dead Bostonians that files
sombrely through the pages of his diary, to the funeral of their baby
brother, little Stephen Sewall, when "Sam and his sisters (who were
about five and six years old) cryed much coming home and at home, so
that I could hardly quiet them. It seems they looked into Tomb, and Sam
said he saw a great Coffin there, his Grandfathers." These were not the
only tears that Sam and Betty and Hannah shed through fear of death.
When Betty was a year older her father wrote:

"It falls to my daughter Elizabeths Share to read the 24 of Isaiah
which she doth with many Tears not being very well, and the
Contents of the Chapter and Sympathy with her draw Tears from me
also."

Two days later, Sam, who was then about ten years old, also showed
evidence of the dejection of soul around him.

"Richard Dumer, a flourishing youth of 9 years old dies of the
Small Pocks. I tell Sam of it and what need he had to prepare for
Death, and therefore to endeavor really to pray, when he said over
the Lord's Prayer: He seemed not much to mind, eating an Aple; but
when he came to say Our Father he burst out into a bitter Cry and
said he was afraid he should die. I pray'd with him and read
Scriptures comforting against Death, as O death where is thy sting,
&c. All things yours. Life and Immortality brought to light by
Christ."

In January, 1695, Judge Sewall writes:

"When I came in, past 7 at night, my wife met me in the Entry and
told me Betty had surprised them. I was surprised with the
Abruptness of the Relation. It seems Betty Sewall had given some
signs of dejection and sorrow; but a little while after din