Year: 1879

GHOST STORIES.


BY. H. B. X.


A stout Yorkshire farmer of the
name of James Wreggit, having emf.
grated to Canada, settled himself and
family on good farm which he rent
ed in one of the townships. He was
considered fair-dealing and honorable
in all transactions with his neighbors,
and in every respect bore . most ex-
cellent character. In the farmers
house was q first.foor sitting-room
with large fireplace. In this room
the children slept, but from the first
night evinced the greatest dislike to
going to bed there, screaming with
terror, and saying that q man was in
the room with them.


For long time the parents paid no
attention to their complaints. During
harvest-time . change was made, and
the farmer himself slept in the room,
as it was cooler and more convenient.
The first night he elept there, he was
about to rise almost before the break
of day, when glancing toward the fire.
place,he saw standing there stranger
of . dissipated, drunken appearance.
Halloi what's thee doing there p
was his very natural exclamation.
Receiving no reply, "Won't thee
speak? Ill make thee speakl" and
picking up one of hts heavy boots
from the bedside, he was preparing to
throw it at the intruder, WHEN the man,
suddenly raising his arm as if to ward
off the blow, vanished in q moment
from before his eyes. Wreggit, I'M.
able to get this matter out of his head,
brooded over it till the next day, when
about noon he entered into conversa.
ton with . neighbor who was work.
ing with him, and asked him to de-
scribe the former tenant Of the farm,
who had died from excessive drinking.
The description 90 entirely resembled
the man he had seen in the room, that
he at once exclaimed, saw him last
nightw Wreggit recounted this. to
some old friends near whom he had
lived before taking the farm, and it
is from the dictation Of one of his au.
ditors that have written down this
remarkable circumstance. At the
time neither Wreggit nor his friends
had the slightest belief in apparitions.


Captain w., friend of mine, was
telling me, while we were on the sub-
ject of gh0sts, Of circumstance which
occurred while he was in India, and
which had entirely removed his dis.
belief in the possibility ofapparitions.
He was the nephew of the general
the troops in canton
ments, near Delhi, in the north of In
dis, in the year l8-. Attached to his
regiment was q young ensign, Arthur
G., quite q lad in years, being only
He was an orphan with
no near relations, and his guardians
had yielded to his enthusiastic love
for military life.


He had been q year with Captain
W.'s regiment. when he began to
droOp and to feel An increasing lang
our and sense of illness, very depress.
ing to his buoyant spirit. This alarm
ed his friends, by whom he was great
ly beloved in fact, he was the gener-
al pet Of the regiment, being q genial
and warm hearted comrade, often en-
llvening the dull routine of regimental
life by his merry humor and hoyish
pranks. After some weeks of total
the fatal verdict Of 'sde:
cline" was given by his medical At
tendant. and, anxious to give q last
chance of recovery to one 80 young
and amiable, the general in command
sent him q sick certificate to Calcutta,
from thence to embark for England,
after due examination by . medical
board. That no care or attention
might be wanting on his journey, q
surgeon, q very dear friend
was cent with him. In due time this
officer rejoined the regiment, report
ing that his young patient had borne
the fatigue Of the journey better than
could have been expected, that he had
himself seen him on board of q home
ward. bound vessel, and that every
possible comfort had been provided
for his passage, the surgeon of the ship
having taken especial charge of him.
This was satisfactory, and after time
his comrades almost ceased to talk of
him and of his chances of recovery.


A few weeks after the doctors re-
turn, the officers of Arthur G.'s regi-
ment were sitting over their wine af-
ter the mess dinner, the mess-room
being q long, large tent with an OPEN
ing at each end. Captain w. said af-
terwards he was thinking Of poor Ar
thur g., and wondering if he should
ever see him again, when Arthur hin :
self came in at one door of the ten,
and passing down the whole length of
the dinner-table went out at the oppo-
site door. He was dressed as they had
last seen him he was deadly pale, but
smlled and nodded to several of his
friends as he had been wont to do, and
gave long and earnest look towards
Captain w., who had been his most
intimate friend.


The mess broke up at once, some
going to look for their old comrade in
the mess.room of the regiment in can.
tonments with them, and Captain w,
to the tent of bis uncle, the general,
whom, however, he found alone writ
ing some dispatches, and who, look
ing up with astonishment, declared he
had eeen nothing of the vounD Officer