Blue hen's chicken. [volume] (Wilmington, Del.) 1848-1854, 1851-01-17
WILMINGTON DELAWARE. .rauDAY JANUARY II 1854

Z
= =
utitI were a medical man. could tell ye
Id facts which you are little aware of,-anecdoi,
lg of the strange tricks that our nerves play vii
fy us; OF delusions so like reaity-'
8. Do you think have not considered that
exclaimed the poor lady. Mr.. Gurney, di
is not think that you would try to persuade nj
ID out of my senses, when | tell you that fot
10 times have seen in daylight, and when wild
sr awake, and in perfect health, wha. | hav
e sad.'
d Mr.. Quincy was very gentle; but, as h
st said, what could he suggest but indigestion
10 or some such cause Of nervous disturbance
+ Yet his heart smote him when his old frien,
d laid her forehead against the mantle piece, an,
It cried heartily.
e He did oil he could. He tried indefatiaably
: though in vain, to persuade her to let he
2 daughter share the spectacle; and he went III,
4 same day, when Miss Wharton was out fol
! her walk, and the servants were at dinner; tc
e examine the house. He made no discovery
D The gratings of ibe underground cellars were
periect. The attics had uap-doors and
! the house had no parapet. The chimneys were
too high and narrow ior any one to get in a,
the iop. No window or door was ever found
unlasiened in the morning. Mrs. Wharton did
i, not think she could engage for courage enough
to get out Of bed, or lock beyond the curta ms.
Nor could she promise not to draw her cur
tains. The face had never appeared within
them; and they seemed sort OF protection
where there was no other.
i Without having made any promises, she
went SO far as 10 start 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 iancied 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 people crave
when they shut and bolt theirs. II this was a
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 sho now
burned night light in her chamber, as the
nj ghts heightened, and not dim, Pickering
rush candle, but a steady wax-lighi. She
s-s- r4s - =
extravagance bit she could mol bear darkness !,
or very feeble light, when the thing might
be behind The curtain.
Throughout October, the visits were .',,ys'
nightly. In the first week in Ncs-faoel '''ey
suddenly ceased and so rr,,,,.s NeeNs v'' pas1eo
away without return "a n"'n ,,,;,s
gan 10 be little. ~NTmed about hsr own WIS,
snd IN ash he.seif whether, after all, 1t was moi
nossibls snat this was trick a. the nerves.
O~s 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 al once. She had borne
Tor 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 1t her
self, because he could make light of it, and
she could not y and gladly lie, her daughter
sleep with her. For long, she gained nothing
by t. During the whole fortnight that the
visits now continued, Miss Wharton never
once saw the face. She tried TO wake the mo
ment her mother touched her; she tried 10 keep
awake; but she never saw the face; and after
thai fortnight, il did not come again TIL April
One bright May dawn, she saw it. Her
mother pulled her wrist, and she woke up to a
sight that burned iselfi in upon her brain. Shel
suppressed shrek at the moment; but she
could not tell Mr.. Gurney OF it afterwards,
without tears. She wanted that day to leavel
the house Immediately ; but she thought of her
mothers long suffering with this terror, the
consideration of the serious consequences of
declaring themselves ghostseers in the town,
and Of the disastrous effect upon their proper
ty, and OF the harmlessness OF the ghost, in
duced 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 l.nding. The stairs
were still dim in the dawn; but she was con-
fdent that she saw something moving there
passinq down TO The hall. As soon as she could
make the servants attend her, she told then,
she believed somebody was in the house and
ali The four women-two ladies and two maids
went armed with pokers and shoyels, and
examined the whole house. They found moth
ling neither in the chimneys, nor under the
4. nv. IN my cfuset-nothing, from celler
Ito attic. And when the maids had recovered a
little, they agreed what tiresome and weary
ling Thing il was when ladies' took f. ncies.-
This was only their first night Of disturbance
4 Miss Wharton called them up three times more /;
and then she gave the matter up. The ser
wants thought her strangely altered, and wish
ed she might not be going To- be i'll.
Thus matters went on for some years. The
oldest thing was the periodicty of the visits. In
winter they were rare /; but there was generally
short series in or about January, after which they
ceased ill the end Of March or the beginning of APP
ril. They went on through nearly the whole sum
mer with one or two intervals of about afortnigh
The servants never suspected even the existence of
the mystery The ladies' never mentioned it ; and
l no article was ever displaced at night The ladies
became in time so accustomed to the appearance as
to bear it almost without uneasiness. II occurred
to them sometimes, how odd il was to be living un-
y der the weight Of such mystery; and they we've
silent when ghosts were talked about and felt and
i looked very serious when they were laughed A.;
n but their alarm had subsidized. The Thing never
s did them any HARM and they had now get merely
to open drowsy eyes to see II It was there end 70
" drop asleep the moment it YVES there no lcHser-
II This mayFeem strange to those who have nof4snd
also to those who have) seen ghosts but we nunc
r Of us kaow what we may come to and these two
II ladies' reached the point of turning their heads on
their pillows without much beating of The heart
ar under the gibberng Of hideous ghost.
!, One circumstances worth noting is,that the Thing
once spoke, After ol its mocking mods, il said
a come to sec you whenever please" Wher
4 Mr.. Quincy was told this, he asked whether th'