he bantered me to mount and ride with him a mile. There was a
splendid stretch of smooth road for a couple of miles on his way, and
without a moment's thought of Gertrude I threw the saddle on my horse
and rode away with him, the people at the house being altogether unaware
that I had gone farther than to the stables.

"I have no idea what set us to horse-racing on that Sunday night; but
race we did. Both horses had good foot and the road was excellent,
though the night was dusky. Before we had gone half a mile we were
going at top speed. When we reached the end of the hard road he was a
little ahead, and I banteringly called to him to 'repeat.' He wheeled at
once, and away we went like the wind. From turning behind, I had a
little the start, and kept it. Perhaps we were fifty yards from the
house, when my mare stepped on a stone, as I suppose, and went down,
throwing me clear of the stirrups, up in the air like a rocket, and down
on my head like a spile-driver. I of course lay insensible with a
crushed skull; and the brother was so near behind and going at such
speed that he could not have stopped, even if he had known what was the
matter.

"Noise--lights--confusion. Gertrude bending over me in hysteric
screams--so they told me afterwards. Part of the hair was gone from one
side of my head, dashed off by the foot of the brother's horse, that had
just thus narrowly missed dashing out my few brains. That is all,
gentlemen. The dream-prophecy was fulfilled within that hair's-breadth
(excuse the bad pun), by a succession of circumstances that were not
arranged by human motion and could not have been expected from anything
in the past; and until some one can explain or reason away the
coincidence, I shall not give up my belief that dreams are sometimes
revelations."

Perhaps it is idle to enter upon any speculations as to the origin of
these superstitions in the human mind; as they may almost be held to be
a part of nature, having a corresponding development in all countries
and all ages. Some of the worst and most injurious of superstitions--those
which involve the supposed presence of the dead, of haunting spectres
and evil spirits, destroying the nerves and paralyzing the whole
system--unquestionably have much of their origin in the "bug-a-boo"
falsehoods told to children by foolish mothers and careless nurses, to
frighten them into "being good." Thousands of men as well as women never
recover from the effects of the