spiritist and would, the Roffs felt sure, be able to treat the
case with great success.

This physician, Dr. E. Winchester Stevens, paid his first visit to
Lurancy in Mr. Roff's company on the afternoon of January 31. He found
the girl, as he afterward related, sitting "near a stove, in a common
chair, her elbows on her knees, her hands under her chin, feet curled
up on the chair, eyes staring, looking every way like an old hag." She
was evidently in an ugly mood, for she refused even to shake hands,
called her father "Old Black Dick" and her mother "Old Granny," and at
first kept an obstinate silence. But presently, brightening up, she
announced that she had discovered that Dr. Stevens was a "spiritual"
doctor and could help her, and that she was ready to answer any
questions he might put. Now followed a strange dialogue. In reply to his
queries she said that her name was not Lurancy Vennum but Katrina Hogan,
that she was sixty-three years old, and had come from Germany "through
the air" three days before. Changing her manner quickly, she confessed
that she had lied and was in reality a boy, Willie Canning, who had died
and "now is here because he wants to be." More than an hour passed in
this "insane talk," as her weeping parents accounted it, and then,
flinging up her hands, she fell headlong in a state of cataleptic
rigidity.

Dr. Stevens promptly renewed his questioning, at the same time taking
both her hands in his and endeavoring to "magnetize" her, to quote his
own expression. It soon developed, according to the replies she made,
that she was no longer on earth but in heaven and surrounded by spirits
of a far more beneficent character than the so-called Katrina and
Willie. With all the earnestness of an ardent spiritist, the doctor
immediately suggested that she allow herself to be controlled by a
spirit who would prevent those that were evil and insane from returning
to trouble her and her family, and would assist her to regain health. To
which she answered that she would gladly do so, and that among the
spirits around her was one that the angels strongly recommended for this
very purpose. It was, she said, the spirit of a young girl who on earth
had been named Mary Roff.

"Why," cried Mr. Roff, "that is my daughter, who has been in heaven
these twelve years. Yes, let her come. We'll be glad to have her come."

Come she did, as the greatly bewildered Mr. Vennum testified next
morning during a hasty visit t