to rub a _clean_ Table) they were able to do it unmolested; but if to do any _useful_ thing (as to rub a _dirty_ Table), they would presently, with many Torments, be made incapable." Finally Cotton Mather took the eldest of the three children, a girl, to his own house, partly out of compassion for her parents, but chiefly, as he tells us, "that I might be a critical Eye-witness of things that would enable me to confute the Sadducism of this Debauched Age"--and certainly her antics should have provided him with a quiverful of arguments against the "Sadducees." "In her Fits she would cough up a Ball as big as a small Egg into the side of her Windpipe that would near choak her, till by Stroaking and by Drinking it was again carry'd down. When I pray'd in the Room her Hands were with a _strong_, though not _even_, Force clapt upon her Ears. And when her Hands were by our Force pull'd away, she cry'd out, _They make such a noise, I cannot hear a word_. She complained that Glover's chain was upon her Leg; and assaying to go, her Gate was exactly such as the chain'd Witch had before she dy'd. [Sometimes she imagined she was mounted on horseback], and setting herself in a riding Posture, she would in her Chair be agitated, as one sometimes Ambling, sometimes Trotting, and sometimes Galloping very furiously. In these Motions we could not perceive that she was mov'd by the Stress of her Feet upon the Ground, for often she touched it not. When she had rode a Minute or two, she would seem to be at a Rendezvous with Them that were her Company, and there she would maintain a Discourse with them, asking them many Questions concerning her self. At length she pretended that her Horse could ride up the Stairs; and unto admiration she rode (that is, was toss'd as one that rode) up the Stair." Subsequently, when the clergy of Boston and Charleston had kept a day of prayer with fasting, the children improved until they became perfectly well. But in an unlucky moment Mr. Mather determined to entertain his congregation with a sermon on these _Memorable Providences_, and the study of this again affected the girl. Formerly, in the worst of her attacks, she had been most dutiful and respectful to Cotton Mather, "but now her whole Carriage to me was with a Sauciness which I am not us'd anywhere to be treated withal. She would knock at my Study door, affirming _that some one below would be glad to see me_, tho' there was none that ask'd for me. And when I chid her for telling what was false, her Answer was _that Mrs. Mather is always glad to see you_! Once when lying in a fit, as he that was praying was alluding to the Words of the Canaanitess, and saying, _Lord, have mercy on a Daughter vext with a Devil_, there came a big, but low, voice from her, in which the Spectators did not see her Mouth to move, _There's two or three of us_."