Herculean one) to the door, which I opened, and he was made to hear loud rappings on the wooden panels, and also on the marble flooring. My real object was to conciliate him as being one of the party of "danger clouds," though he was not the one who had been the object of my terror. "What is the meaning of this?" he said. "Have _you_ anything to do with the Rochester knockings? I thought those two white old maids were the ones. I was sent here by a religious society to break it all up, and drive it out of New York, as I did last week with Fred. Douglass and Julia Griffith, and their sets of Abolitionists." I told him he had been very wrong in doing so, and that those ladies were strangers here, as he and his friends were. "What, are _you_ the Rochester knockers?" "Yes." "Why, I thought you were older. Ain't you afraid of me? What, these children!" "No, I am not a bit afraid of you," I repeated, though in my secret heart I was dreadfully afraid of the other man. "Well, I am Captain Rynders--haven't you heard of me?" "Yes, I have, but I am not afraid of you." He took a seat at the table, and I invited him to ask some questions of some friends of his in the Spirit world. He asked a brother of his where he had died--"In California," was the correct reply. "Of what disease?" To this also he got a reply, which, with a strong blow of his fist on the table, he admitted to be correct. Captain Rynders was now our friend, and a good and gallant one he proved. He made the _Herald_ publish a long account of it in our favor; the only occasion of its doing anything of the kind. He said that nobody should molest us; that he saw no reason why it should be done, and he emphasized this with a strong blow upon the table. He was indeed surprised that _we_ were the mediums; he had supposed them to be the old Quaker women over there (alas, poor good souls!). My relations soon became equally comfortable with his big friend also, of whom I had been so afraid. A letter for me was brought in and laid on the table between him and me. I noticed that he seemed to observe the direction on it somewhat closely. I presently handed the letter over to mother, saying, "Here is a letter from our dear friend Maria Rogers." Said my big neighbor, "Why, where did you ever know Maria Rogers?" "In Albany, at the Delavan House, where her husband had some business position. She is one of the sweetest women I ever knew, and I love her dearly. She was also very beautiful." "She is all that you say," was his reply, "and she is my own darling sister." The letter proved to be an invitation to spend Sunday with her at the Oceanic House. I had no further fear of her big brother, who, together with Captain Rynders, would certainly have pitched all the rest of the company out of the window in our defence, had it been necessary. Such was the conversion of our "prophet," from the cursing for which he had been commissioned, to blessings. I have