THE DAY OF JUDGMENT. 139

Angel had me up in court to answer him. For you could n’t
expect an angel to call you Jack when you were dead.

“ George Zacharias!’ said the awful voice again. I didn’t
know what else to do, I was so frightened, so I just hollered
out, ‘“ Here!” as I do at school.

“Timothy !’? came the voice once more.

Now Jill had a bright idea. Up he shouted, “ Absent!”
at the top of his lungs.

“George! Jack! Jill! Where are you? Are you
killed? O, wait a minute, and I’ll bring a light!”

This did n’t sound so much like Judgment Day as it did
like Aunt John. I began to feel better. So did Jill. I sat
up. Sodidhe. It wasn’t a minute before the light came
into sight, —and something that looked like the cellar door,
the cellar stairs, and Aunt John’s spotted wrapper, and Miss
Togy in a nightgown, away behind, as white as a ghost.
Aunt John held the light above her head, and looked down.
She had her hand above her eyes to shield them. I don’t be-
lieve I shall ever sce an angel that will make me feel any
better to look at than Aunt John did that night.

“O you blessed boys!” said Aunt John, — she was laugh-
ing and crying together. “To think that you should have
fallen through the old chimney to the cellar floor, and be sit-
ting there alive in such a funny heap as that!”

That was just what we had done. The old flooring — not
very secure —had given way in the storm; and we’d gone