Nestleton Magna: A Story of Yorkshire MethodismWray, J. Jackson (James Jackson)
General
Nestleton Magna: A Story of Yorkshire Methodism
Wray, J. Jackson (James Jackson)
Methodist Church (Great Britain) -- Fiction; Yorkshire (England) -- Fiction
He did not feel exactly comfortable, but would not give himself time
to hesitate. He opened the gate, and noiselessly strode along the
paddock, towards the haunt of Sister Agatha’s restless ghost. Lifting
his eyes towards the hoary gables, standing gaunt and grim in the
sombre night, he saw a sight which drove the blood from his beating
heart. There, right before him, he saw the identical ghost of the
suicidal nun! A tall figure draped in white, with cadaverous face,
looking all the more deathly for the conventual linen bound tightly
round the brow, and the dark blood-stain on her breast. She stretched
her arm in silent menace to the astonished Morris, who stood
transfixed with fear. Slowly advancing to the centre of the broken
arch, she stood a moment in statuesque stillness, a low murmur rose
from her bloodless lips, a lurid light shone round her and through
her, culminating in a bluish vapour, out of which shriek after shriek
echoed through the ruins. Then the darkness gathered as before, and
the stillness was unbroken, save for the screech of the night owls and
the twitter of birds which had been disturbed by the dread nocturnal
scream! Piggy Morris, in a perfect ecstasy of terror, turned and fled,
nor paused, till pallid and panting, he flung himself upon the oaken
settle, saying,--
“It’s as true as Gospel! I’ve seen the ghost!”
The next day Piggy Morris was driving his light cart over Nestleton
Wold, with half-a-dozen porkers, covered by a net, in the body of his
ramshackle vehicle. These he was about to dispose of at Kesterton
Market. Half-way up a steepish hill, he stopped to give his not too
flourishing steed a rest, just where Old Adam Olliver was “laying
down” a quick-set hedge.
“Good mornin’,” said that cheery rustic. “Good mornin’, Maister
Morris. Then you’re off te Kesterton. Ah wop you’re tackin’ yer pigs
tiv a feyn markit, as t’ sayin’ is; an’ ’at you’ll cum back wiv a
empty cart an’ a full poss.”
“Nay, I haven’t much hope as far as t’ purse goes, but the pigs ’ll
hev to stop, whether they fetch little or much. But I’m fair bothered
out of my wits this mornin’, an’ not in good trim for making
bargains.”
“Why, bless uz,” said Adam, “Ah’s sorry for that. What’s matter wi’
yo’? Noo ah cum te leeak at yo’, you deea leeak a bit seedy like. Ah
wop all’s right at yam. Hoo’s t’ missis?”
“Oh, she’s all right, for anything I know. But I’ll tell you what it
is, Adam. I’ve seen Sister Agatha’s ghost!”
“Why, bless me soul, Piggy Morris! You’re t’ last man i’ t’ wolld ’at
ah sud expect te say that. Ah didn’t think ’at you’d neea mair sense
then te lissen te sitch an aud wife’s teeale as that.”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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