The constitutional union., 1861-01-04
From Blackwood's Magazine 4 D f F 1 II.


 light; that palpabe gloom which seemed to beat like roOmful of palpitations of the heart around you, above you, about you, everywhere; that visible nothing which holds the tables, the chairs, the portraits you are familiar with, yet hides them in its black vail from your view; that the empty fuIness through which you thrust out your groping arms, then shrink back, oppressed with a presence you can neither hear, sec nor feel.
 "Alilly," l said to my little maid, run somewhere and get me light"
 She ran to the grocer's wife, and came back with penny dip in brass candlestick.
 As she placed 1t on my table, went out and shut the door, the little boy in bronze on my mantle raised his hammer and struck the fig ure of time twelve ringing blows upon the heart It was midnight
 The candle burned clearly. I resumed the old volume of German legends was reading, and as 1 laid my finger on a paragraph and paused to ponder on the possibility of spirits returning to earth to syreak vengeance on foes. or work veal to friends, l heard deep sigh at my elbow
 l turned and goholI the ghost of my grand mother
 l knew her from her resemblance to her portrait She wore the same white cap with is wide border rlatted round her face-the same prim dress with which l had grown familiar n the picture.
 She died twenty years ago. l was named for her.
 drew up the rocking chair for the ghost She sat down in it. A pillow could not have sank there more no.,Iessiy than she did. She kept her hands in the same position on her breast. that somebody tied them twenty years ago.
 She fixed her keen black eyes upon me beautiful eyes, which 1 had always admired in the portrait None of her descendants had such eyes
 < could not come" she said, in deep sep ulchral tones, ' in gas-li9ht. Ghosts and gas lights are at war always. Ks for kerosene oil, we groan iii spirit at its Use. How mpr- tai noses can, tight after night, inhale the odor 1t omits, is wonder It is worse than birthstone We have put our cold lips under your chimneys, and blown our ghostly breath into the flame We have seen the chimneys blacken with smoke, and apartments fill with disgusting fragrance. People only said the lamp is in draught. They moved it and bore with it. We shall have to yield. Kerosene is modern discovery. Ghosts are old-fash- toned. To be out of date is to be out of mind. Your tallow candles please me. We ghosts like the light of other days around US. We always, in the body, burned tallow candles. "
 The fine eyes of my grandmother gazed at my penny dip steadtastly for moment. She seemed to see yissions and dream dreams
 My dear" she said you are the first of the family that has returned to candles since the innovation of gas. You are indebted to your dip for my presence. How hollow l would have looked under a chandaler-how ! bloodless, how white. As it Is, think am locking very natural. am I not"
 She glanced up at her portrait and waited my reply.
 A little pale, grandmother" I said tell me, dear madam ifyour pursuits in the other world are of such a nature that they admit of your returning to this at any time?"
 By no means 1 am permitted to appear in this sphere but seldom. My influence l can make felt oftencr have not been seen before since my coffin lid was closed. 1 am come to tell you there arose a yellin Pandemo- nium. looked in to see whence it came. found the great chamber assigned to little children, and which is always full of little ones of all sizes and ages, the scene of great commotion. Infants were crawling into cor ners; three year old toddlers were tottering out of the way. Older ones were hastily finding seats. and all faces wore listening expression. \ small voice was saying:
 It was TO fault of mine that brought me here. 1. who am now but five years old might have lived to be fifty. Nature, urfor- tuuatcly, gave me a fine physical develop ment. Ny chest was round and full, my skin clear, my limbs finely moulded. Ny birthplace Was in a cold climate My tender mother, proud of her offspring, barred my neck and arl4s in the chill winters, when her rose-5ushes and vines were packed in warm straw and thoroughly protected from every blast. lWvs brought down to be viewed by company, and exposed to different tempera- lures as l went from room to room My mother wrapped in soft velvet and comforta- ble silks, did hot suffer 1 did but could not tell Ter 50. I took cold. became great trouble in the house My beauy laiI-I. l fingered on from month to month, and died at last. at five years old, of consumption. Ny mother cried over my It. tie coffin. knew. but I could not tell her SD then. that her own vanity had placed me there-woud send he here
 ".I was trotted to death,' cried more piping voice, as the first speaker sat down. \ woman was hired expressly to take care of me and she took care that l should not want for exercise Her days and nights were spent in keeping me going up, up, upy,' and down, down. downy." That unknown won- der. perpetual motion. was to be found in my nurses knees Every bone in my poor little body was racked, every ounce of flesh was sore. My food went down milk and came up cheese If cried, 1 was trOtted; if 1 scream ed I was trotted if l was still, was trotted T became little better than a human churn, from which the butter had been taken and the sour milk left standing. My brain turned to bruises, my blood to whey, my bones grew so sharp they pierced the knees which trotted them. 1 began to cut teeth, my tongue was constantly jolted between my jaws, and in danger of being bit off. dared not whine, for knew the penalty; I began at last to cal culate how long the torture could possibly continue Warm weather was coming on, onl I ono c, q, o4lo., lp .,, ,,,,.,.