This woman had strong doubts upon her mind, and
was very much troubled as to whether or not her sister went to heaven;
and she begged it as a favor from the blessed Virgin, that the state of
her sister's sowl might be revaled to her. Her prayer was granted.
One night, about a week after her death, her sister came back to her,
dressed, all in white, and circled round by a veil of glory.
"'Is that Mary?' said the living sister.
"'It is,' said the other; 'I have got liberty to appear to you,' says
she, 'and to tell you that I'm happy.'
"'May the holy Virgin be praised!' said the other. 'Mary, dear, you have
taken a great weight off of me,' says she: 'I thought you'd have a bad
chance, in regard of the life you led.'
"'When I died,' said the spirit, 'and was on my way to the other world,
I came to a place where the road divided itself into three parts;--one
to heaven, another to hell, and a third to purgatory. There was a dark
gulf between me and heaven, and a breach between me and purgatory that
I couldn't step across, and if I had missed my foot there, I would have
dropped into hell. So I would, too, only that the blessed Virgin put my
own scapular over the breach, and it became firm, and I stepped on it,
and got over. The Virgin then desired me to look into hell, and the
first person I saw was my own husband, standing with a green sod under
his feet! 'He got that favor,' said the blessed Virgin, 'in consequence
of the prayers of a holy priest, that had once been a poor scholar, that
he gave assistance to, at a collection made for him in such a chapel,'
says she, 'Then,' continued the sowl, 'Mary,' says she, 'but there's
some great change in the world since I died, or why would the people
live so long? It can't be less than six thousand years since I departed,
and yet I find every one of my friends just as I left them.
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