HIS " conversion:' 43 



him ; "but, he said, without effect. At last he had a severe . 

 fever ; and when he fancied himself dying, had a vision. 

 He saw a grating in the floor, close by his bed, and through 

 it the torments of the lost. Two souls he remembered 

 specially ; one " like a singed hog," the other " all over 

 black like a charcoal spade." He looked in fear, and heard 

 a voice cry, "Behold your sins." He prayed; promised, 

 if he recovered, to try and do better; and felt himself 

 forsjiven at once. 



This was his story, which T have set down word for word ; 

 and of which I can only say, that its imagery is no more 

 gross, its confusion between the objective and subjective no 

 more unphilosophical, than the speech on similar matters of 

 many whom we are taught to call divines, theologians, and 

 saints. 



At all events, this crisis in his life produced, according 

 to his own statement, not merely a religious, but a moral 

 change. He became a better man henceforth. He had 

 the reputation, among those who knew him well, of being 

 altogether a good man. If so, it matters little what cause 

 he assigned for the improvement. Wisdom is justified of 

 all her children ; and, I doubt not, of old black Isaac among 

 the rest. 



In 1864 he had a great sorrow. Old Mary, trying to 

 smoke the mosquitos out of her house with a charcoal-pan, 



