Next to the Prince of Darkness, I feared these worms.

They were harmless, but the sight of one made me tremble.

So many people shared in this feeling that the poplars were all cut down and elms planted in their stead.

The Johnstown academy and churches were large square buildings, painted white, surrounded by these same sombre poplars, each edifice having a doleful bell which seemed to be ever tolling for school, funerals, church, or prayer meetings.

Next to the worms, those clanging bells filled me with the utmost dread; they seemed like so many warnings of an eternal future.