Soon after the departure of my brother to the better land, our spirit-band informed us very plainly through “Ouija,” that it was our duty to remove to Boston in order that our children might have better educational facilities, and be admitted to the “musical swim” of the “Hub of the Universe.”  We obeyed their mandate, and the predictions of our angel friends were fully verified.  In our new home the older girls met those to whom they were married in Heaven, and to whom they gave their hands and hearts.  I now look back over a half century of existence on this earth, and my muse inspires me to record that: 

  I have ships that went to sea
    More than fifty years ago. 
  None have yet come back to me,
    But keep sailing to and fro,
  Plunging through the shoreless deep,
  With tattered sails and battered hulls
  While around them scream the gulls.

  I have wondered why they stayed
    From me, sailing round the world
  And I’ve said, “I’m half afraid
    That their sails will ne’er be furled.” 
  Great the treasures that they hold,
  Silks, and plumes, and bars of gold,
  While the spices which they bear
  Fill with fragrance all the air.

  I have waited on the piers
    Gazing for them down the bay,
  Days and nights, for many years,
    Till I turned heart-sick away. 
  But the pilots, when they land,
  Kindly take me by the hand,
  Saying, “Surely they will come to thee,
  Thy proud vessels from the sea.”

  So I never quite despair,
    Nor let hope or courage fail,
  And some day, when skies are fair,
    Up the bay my ships will sail.

CHAPTER XXVI.

HAND IN HAND WITH ANGELS.

In our Boston home, there came to us one of the most wonderful and inspiring experiences ever vouchsafed to mortals beneath the stars; an experience which solved forever for us the problem of immortality, which all the religious teachings of all the ages had been powerless to accomplish.  It confirmed beyond a shadow of doubt, our knowledge of the future life obtained previously at Onset Bay, as the following named events transpired in our own house in the presence of witnesses under test circumstances which precluded all possibility of deception.

Mrs. B——­, of Boston, came to our house alone, gratuitously, on her own volition, sat within a few feet of our entire family and two of our neighbors, having no cabinet or any paraphernalia which are always required by those charlatans who have associated the fair name of spiritualism with fraud and chicanery.  In about one hour there appeared in our parlor, in full view of us all, more than thirty forms; some tall as were ever seen on earth, others little children, the forms of our offspring who were “still born”; my brother Joshua, who had been in spirit life a little over one year came fully materialized and was clearly recognized by my entire family.