RECOLLECTIONS TO 1892. 103 



there would be nobody to-day, to besot the simpletons 

 except those older than I am, and I suppose the num- 

 ber is limited to-day. God have pity for me, I have 



never meant to descend to that level although I 



think of it, when I was 10 or 12 years old, I heard 

 an old woman telling my mother that one sister of her 

 (my mother) had told her that if I would study to be 

 a priest she would give all she had, and all she would 

 be able to save as long as she lived to pay for my edu- 

 cation in a Seminary. Was not that a strange coinci- 

 dence ? that a man I hardly knew should know such a 

 circumstance, when myself I had forgotten it. 



One thing brings another. I recollect that my father, 

 speaking of that aunt of mine, said one day to some- 

 body who wanted to marry her for her money, that 

 11 she was pickled in holy water." She died a maid, 

 and I think I must have had some of her money, for 

 she died before my mother and sister, and they were 

 heirs to her, and both my mother and sister died during 

 the Secession War, and that I received from France, 

 through a notary public, some $800, paid in gold, 

 which at that time was worth $1,000. So you see the 

 caprices of Destiny ! She wanted to give her money 

 to make a saint! and she made a heretic her heir. 

 However, if any body go to Heaven those two sisters 

 ought to go !!.... 



