28th.

This day we dined with Major Pike

, in
compliance with an invitation which he gave us
yesterday. He treated us with great respect and
attention, and appeared to be pleased with our
company. New Jersey being the place of his
nativity, he has considerable knowledge of our
Society. In the course of conversation he in-
quired after Peter Yarnall, and says that Peter
and himself were in the same military company
during the Revolutionary war; he had not heard
of his death.

The following circumstance, as related by him,
making at the time considerable impression upon
me, I have thought proper to record it. He told
us that several officers with Peter

and himself
were lodging together; that one night Peter
alarmed them all with loud screams to such a de-
gree that on first awaking he supposed the enemy
had fallen upon their army with bayonets. Peter
was on his feet, and appeared to be awake. They
spoke to him repeatedly, and endeavored to ap-
proach him, but every advance they made in-
creased his alarm. Finally he recovered himself
and became composed, and for several days after-
wards, instead of satisfying their inquiries, ap-
peared to be sunk in distress and gloom. He
afterwards told them he considered his alarm as
a warning to him, and that his fright arose from
a plain representation of the devil, come to take
him off. Peter in a short time left the army,
and (said the Major) I always believed that his