A New England Girlhood, Outlined from Memory (Beverly, MA)

The most widespread delusion of the time was Millerism. A great many persons--and yet not so many that I knew even one of them--believed that the end of the world was coming in the year 1842; though the date was postponed from year to year, as the prophesy failed of fulfillment. The idea in itself was almost too serious to be jested about; and yet its advocates made it so literal a matter that it did look very ridiculous to unbelievers. An irreverent little workmate of mine in the spinning-room made a string of jingling couplets about it, like this:-- "Oh dear! oh dear! what shall we do In eighteen hundred and forty-two? "Oh dear! oh dear! where shall we be In eighteen hundred and forty-three? "Oh dear! oh dear! we shall be no more In eighteen hundred and forty-four, "Oh dear! oh dear! we sha'n't be alive In eighteen hundred and forty-five." I thought it audacious in her, since surely she and all of us were aware that the world would come to an end some time, in some way, for every one of us. I said to myself that I could not have "made up" those rhymes. Nevertheless we all laughed at them together. A comet appeared at about the time of the Miller excitement, and also a very unusual illumination of sky and earth by the Aurora Borealis. This latter occurred in midwinter. The whole heavens were of a deep rose-color--almost crimson--reddest at the zenith, and paling as it radiated towards the horizon. The snow was fresh on the ground, and that, too, was of a brilliant red. Cold as it was, windows were thrown up all around us for people to look out at the wonderful sight. I was gazing with the rest, and listening to exclamations of wonder from surrounding unseen beholders, when somebody shouted from far down the opposite block of buildings, with startling effect,--