see that it is made plain and neat, and so that it will fit you." How glad
I was when I got that dress! Only once after that was I tempted to build
again what I had destroyed. Then I got a dress and trimmed it with lace,
but I could not wear it that way at all. That was my last temptation to try
to dress in style.

About nine o'clock one evening in the month of December, of the year I was
saved, Mother and I were in the kitchen. I was down on my knees mixing some
sausage-meat in a vessel, when all at once I looked up and saw a very
bright light, which seemed to be moving very rapidly. "Mother," said I,
"what makes that light?" My first thought was that some of my younger
brothers were carrying a light and trying to scare us; but when I saw that
the light was so strong and moving so fast, I felt sure that I was
mistaken. By this time mother was standing in the door and calling, "Mary,
come quick and you can see what is causing the light." What I saw, was a
large ball of fire. Starting from the west, or a little north of west, it
moved southeast at a high rate of speed.

When we first saw the ball, about two-thirds of it was hidden behind the
horizon, and we gazed at it until it went out of sight. Perhaps our
imaginations worked upon our senses; but it seemed that sparks of fire flew
back from the ball. In two or three minutes after the ball disappeared,
there was a terrible trembling of the earth as if there had been a small
earthquake. Probably the ball struck with such force that it shook the
earth. This sight was witnessed by people in different states.

My feelings at the time of this incident made me think how poor sinners
will feel in the day of judgment when they will be standing awaiting their
doom, knowing that the wrath of God rests upon them, and that they are
without hope. Far more terrifying things than the passing of a comet will