oreign substance in a
healthy body, his nature would force him out of this uncongenial
environment. With some natures the experience would have been a slow and
protracted one, but with him the termination could not be long delayed.

It came in a tragedy at the close of the next Sabbath. The day had been
dreary, painful and exasperating beyond all endurance, and he felt that
he could never stand the strain of another. And so, having detained his
mother in the sitting room after the rest of the family had retired, he
paced the floor for a few moments, and after several unsuccessful
attempts to introduce the subject gently, said bluntly:

"Mother, I am chafing myself to death against the limitations of this
narrow life."

"My son," she said calmly, "this has not come to me as a surprise."

He moved uneasily and looked as if he would ask her "Why?"

"Because," she said, as if he had really spoken, "a mother possesses the
power of divination, and can discern the sorrows of her children, by a
suffering in her own bosom."

The consciousness that he had caused her pain rendered him incapable of
speech, and for a moment they sat in silence.

"What is thy wish and purpose, my son?" she asked at last, with an
effort which seemed to exhaust her strength.

"I wish to see the world," he answered, his eye kindling as he spoke.

This reply, foreseen and expected as it was, sent a shiver through her.
She turned paler, if possible, than before; but summoning all the powers
of self-control resident in that disciplined spirit, she replied with an
enforced tranquillity:

"My son, does thee know what this world is which thee fain would see?"

"I have seen it in my dreams. I have heard its distant voices calling to
me. My spirit chafes to answer their summons. I strain at my anchor
like a great ship caught by the tide."

"Shall I tell thee what this world of which thee has dreamed such dreams
is really like, my son?" she asked, struggling to maintain her calm.

"How should thee know?"

"I have seen it."

"Thee has seen it? I thought that thee had passed thy entire life among
the Quakers," he answered with surprise.

"I say that I have seen it. Shall I tell thee what it is?" she resumed,
as if she had not heard him.

"If thee will," he answered, awed by a strange solemnity in her manner.

Her quick respirations had become audible. Small but intensely red spots
were burning on either cheek. Her white hands trembled as they