Eastern times. [volume] (Bath, Me.) 1846-1857, 1850-12-19

Without having made any promises, she
went so far as to stand up in bed, the next time
she saw the face. The eyes winked horribly
at her; the head nodded-and was gone. The
beating of her heart prevented her hearing any
thing that time but once or twice during the
autumn she fancied she heard light and
swift footstep in the passage. She always
left her room door open for the sake of the
same sort of feeling of security that most peo-
pie crave when they shut and bolt theirs. If
this was ghost, bolts would not keep it out !;
and she could fly the more easily through the
open door if her terror should become too great
to be endured alone. For the first time she
now burned night light in her chamber, as
the nights heightened, and not dim, flicker
ing, rush candle, but steady wax-light. She
knew that her daughter wondered at the strange
extravaganza but she could not bear darkness,
or very feeble light when the thing might be
behind the curtain.
Throughout October the visits were almost
nightly. In the first week in November, they
suddenly ceased; and so many weeks passed
away without return, that Mrs. Wharton be-
gan to be little alarmed about her own wits,
and to ask herself whether, after all, it was not
possible that this was a trick of the nerves.
One night in January, that doubt, at least, was
settled for there, at the same bed-post, was
the same face. Mrs. Wharton was now, after
this interval, subdued at once. She had borne
for half year, her pastors suspicious of her
digestion and of her wisdom, and now, she
really wanted sympathy. She let him tell her
daughter, Qet him, rather than tell it herself,
because he could make light of it, and she
could not y and gladly let her daughter sleep
with her. For long, she gained nothing by
it, During the whole fortnight that the visits
now continued, Miss Wharton never once saw
the face. She tried to wake the moment her
mother touched her she tried 10 keep awake !;
but she never saw the face and after that fort
night it did not come again till April.
One bright May dawn, she saw it. Her
mother pulled her wrist, and she woke up TO a
sight that burned itself in upon her BRAIN
She suppressed a shrek at the moment, but
she could not tell Mr.. Gurney of it afterwards,
without tears. She wanted to leave the house
Immediately but the thought Of her mother 5
long suffering with this horror, the consdera-
ton of the serious consequences Of declaring
themselves ghost-seers in the town, and of the
disastrous effect upon their property, and of
the harmlessness of the ghost, induced her TO
summon up her courage, and bear on. She
did more. When little Injured, she one night
sprang out of bed, rushed round the foot of it,
and out upon the landing. The stairs were
still dim in the dawn bnt she was confident
that she saw something moving there-passing
down 10 the hall. AS soon as she could make
the servants attend her, she told them she be-
lieved somebody was in the house, and all the
four women-two ladies and two maids-went
armed with pokers and shovels, and examined
the whole house. They found nothing; neith-
er in the chimneys, nor under the beds, nor in
any closet-nothing from cellar TO attic And
when the maids had recovered little, they
was when ladies took fancies. This was only
their first night of disturbance. Miss Wharton
called them up three times more, and then she
gave the matter up. The servants thought
her strangely altered, and wished she might
not be going to be i'll.
Thus matters went on for some years. The
oldest thing was the periodicity of the visits.
in winter they were rare but there was gen.
orally short series in or abott January, after
which they ceased till the end of March, or the
beginning of April They went on through
nearly the whole summer, with one or two in
tervals of about fortnight. The servants
never suspected even the existence of the mys-
| terry. Their. .ladies never mentioned it; and
no article was ever displaced at night. The
ladies became in time so accustomed to the ap-
pearance as to bear it almost without uneasi-
ness. 1t occurred to them sometimes, how
odd it was to be living under the. weight Of
such mystery; and they were silent when
ghosts were talked about, and felt and looked
very serious when they were laughed at but
their alarm had subsided. The Thing never
did them any harm; and they had now go,
merely to open drowsy eyes, to see if it was
there; and to drop asleep the moment it was
there no longer. This may seem strange to
those who have not (and also to those who
have,) seen ghosts; but we none of us know
what we may come to; and these two ladies
reached the point of turning their hesds on
their pillows, without much beating Of the
heart, under the gibbering of hideous ghost.
One circumstance. worth noting is, that the
Thing once spoke. After one of its mocking
mods, it said Il come to see you whenever
please When Mr.. Gurney was told this, he
asked whether the language was English, and
what sort of English it was. 1t must have
been English, as the ladies' did not observe
ANYTHING remarkable. As to the dialect, il
had made no particular impression upon them
but when they came to remember aud consid-
er, they thought it must have been the broad
dialect of the district, which they were accus.
toned to hear in the kitchen, and in the streets
and shops, every day. This was all. Amidst
the multitude of nightly visitations, no eApla,
nation-no new evidence-occurred for several
years. Mr.. Gurney was not fond. of being
puzzled. His plan was to dismiss from his
mind what puzzled him. He seldom inqnlred
after the ghost; and when he did, he always
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