the sun's--photographed there, as if by the lightning's fierce
stroke!

"Presently a band of children on their way to school overtook me, and
began to whisper to each other as they passed. I saw that they looked at
me with suspicion in their eyes. 'They too can see the brand,' thought I;
'they are mouthing about it now.'

"Urged to desperation, I plunged into a thicket near by. Amid a group of
trees in its centre, one lifted itself higher and straighter than its
companions. Upon its topmost branch, as I chanced to lift my eyes, I
beheld to my terror the woman whom I had sent into eternity, looking down
upon me with scoffs and grimaces!

"The ghostly apparition wrought me to frenzy. In hot haste I climbed the
tree. Its straight, smooth sides, under ordinary circumstances would have
proved a barrier to my efforts, but in my excitement they formed no
obstacle. Reaching the top, I endeavored to grasp her. Stretching out my
arms and clasping frantically the air, I fell dead to the ground.

"Thus was I born into the spirit world. The idea that last possessed me
on earth, first possessed me in the spirit life.

"No mortal man can describe the horror I experienced on finding myself in
the midst of a boundless space, face to face with mine enemy. Her narrow
intellect and strong animal nature seemed to have expanded, even as I
have seen the face of a child expand from pleasing infancy into idiotic
youth. This animal part of her immortality roused my ire--struck some
savage chord in my nature--and I rose up like a wild beast to attack her;
but the creature laughed and jeered at my vain efforts. She led me thus,
in fruitless pursuit, further and further into space; inciting me on by
her taunts and ringing laugh, until I found myself in a dark and noisome
pit, when she suddenly vanished.

"Ignorant of the peculiarities of spirit condition, I could not grope my
way out of this place, which appeared to me a very hell. I wandered in
this gloomy labyrinth, breathing the foul air, and uttering fearful cries
which struck my ears with anguish. Black, threatening shapes appeared to
stand in the intricate windings of that gloomy cavern, ready to seize me
if I dared to essay my escape. When my agony had reached its utmost
bounds of endurance, I felt myself growing strangely light, and like some
thin vapor I ascended to the mouth of the pit and made my exit into the
outer air.

"The place I then discovered to be merely a cavern or deser