.
But I preferred _seeing_ to _hearing;_ creeping softly down the kitchen
stairs, I peeped in at the door, which was slightly ajar, and beheld my
Christian papa engaged in a manner that reflected no credit on his
observance of the seventh commandment.

'Thus having satisfied myself as to the nature and extent of _his_
sanctity and holiness, I softly ascended the stairs, and resumed my seat
in the parlor. In less than ten minutes afterwards, the whole family
were summoned together around the family altar, and then my excellent
and pious father poured out his pure spirit in prayer, returning thanks
for having been 'preserved from temptation,' and supplicating that all
the members of his household might flee from fleshy lusts, which war
against the soul; to which my chaste and saint-like mother responded in
a fervent 'Amen.' From that evening, the kitchen wench with whom my
father had defiled himself, assumed an air of bold insolence to every
one in the house; she refused to perform any of the menial services
devolving upon her, and when my mother spoke of dismissing her, my
father would not listen to it; so the girl continued with us. She had
evidently obtained entire dominion over my father, and did not scruple
to use her power to her own advantage; for she flaunted about in showy
ribbons and gay dresses, and I had no difficulty in surmising who
furnished her with the means of procuring them.

'I still continued to attend the church of the Rev. Mr. Flanders. He
used to preach excellent sermons, so far as composition and style of
delivery were concerned; his words were smooth as oil; his manner full
of the order of sanctity; his prayers were fervid eloquence. Yet, when I
thought what a consummate scoundrel and hypocrite he was at heart, I
viewed him with loathing and disgust.

'I soon became sensible that this reverend rogue began to view me with
more than an ordinary degree of interest and admiration; for I may say,
without vanity, that as I approached my fifteenth year, I was a very
pretty girl; my form had begun to develop and ripen, and my maiden
graces were not likely to escape the lustful eyes of the elderly roues
of our 'flock,' and seemed to be particularly attractive to that aged
libertine known as the Rev. Balaam Flanders.

'So far from being flattered by the attentions of our minister (as many
of our flock were,) I detested and avoided him. Yet his lecherous
glances were constantly upon me, whenever I was t