Was it their purpose to keep us up to the task that had been imposed on us, and in a state of submission from a sense of our powerlessness against them? I could not answer these questions then, nor can I now. A friend has suggested that they were perhaps miserable and earth-bound, and unprogressed spirits whom our mediumship gave access to us and certain limited means of action on material objects in our atmosphere, and they may have found a diversion from the poor life they are as yet living, and some amusement in frightening us, somewhat as children enjoy the mere making of noise and startling people, without attaining or seeking any other object. There are plenty of people daily passing into the Spirit condition, where they undergo no speedy change, of whom this is very supposable. A predecessor (daughter of Mr. Calhoun) in the occupation of this house, some years before, told me that they had heard similar noises, and Mr. Calhoun told me that he and friends had sat up in the night with pistols to catch the burglars presumed to cause them. A CAUTION AGAINST CRUELTY TO ORPHAN CHILDREN. In Canada West, not far from the residence of my sister Mrs. Elizabeth Osterhout, there lived a family consisting of a husband, wife, and three children, and a "hired" girl, whom Mr. ---- favored. Mrs. ---- was rapidly declining; and she feared that her husband would marry the girl, after her death. Knowing the violent temper of the girl, she besought her husband not to marry her, and thus, necessarily, place the children under her care. He promised his wife he would not: but his promise was soon broken, and to his sorrow he found, when too late, that his wife's fears were being realized. The children were neglected and cruelly beaten for the least offences. They were sad, and were often seen crying and hungry. The neighbors fed the little ones whenever an opportunity offered; and the children told strange stories about their mother coming to them at night. They said she came and covered them with blankets which their step-mother would not allow them to have on their beds; and they said that when she found the blankets on their beds she would whip them; and when they told her that _they_ did not put them on the bed, she would accuse them of falsehood. But she soon had reason to know that a power beyond the children was at work there. The step-mother had taken the feather bed, which their own mother had made for them, and tied and hung it up, because she said they would soil it. Soon after this, quantities of feathers were lying about the sleeping-room, which could not be accounted for; until, on close examination, they discovered the bed-tick was burned all over in exactly the form of human hands. This could not be charged to the children; and the occurrence was talked over by every one in the neighborhood.