56 ACCOUNT OF A BOY 



When a tailor was brought to make a suit of mournings for 

 him, the boy took him into the apartment where his father 

 had died, stretched his own head and neck backwards, pointed 

 to the bed, and then conducted him to the church-yard, to the 

 grave in which his father had been interred. 



Being lately very ill, he was put into the same bed where 

 his father had died. He would not lie a moment in it, but be- 

 came quite peaceable when removed to another. 



On one occasion, shortly after his father's death, discovering 

 that his mother was unwell, and in bed, he was observed to 

 weep. 



Three months after the death of his father, a clergyman be- 

 ing in the house, on a Sunday evening, he pointed to his fa- 

 ther's Bible, and then made a sign that the family should 

 kneel. 



Lately, his mother being from home, his sister allayed the 

 anxiety he shewed for her return, by laying his head gently 

 down on a pillow, once for each night his mother was still to 

 be away ; implying, that he would sleep so many times before 

 her return *. 



Whilst 



* It would appear that this is the sign which Miss Mitchell usually employs 

 on similar occasions ; and the ready interpretation of it by her brother, implies, 

 on his part, no inconsiderable a share of shrewdness and of reflection. I copy the 

 following parallel incident from a paper of Mr Wardrop's now before me. 

 (D. S.) 



" When his new clothes were all made, I solicited his father not to allow him 

 to put them on, until I was present. It was signified to him accordingly, that 

 in two days he should have them. This was done by shutting his eyes, and 

 bending down his head twice, in order to intimate to him, that he must first 

 have two sleeps." 



