Produced by Iona Vaughan, Mark Akrigg, Jana Srna and the Online Distributed Proofreading Canada Team at http://www.pgdpcanada.net THE FIVE JARS by M. R. JAMES. Author of "Ghost Stories of an Antiquary" New York. Longmans, Green & Co. London. Edward Arnold & Co. 1922 All Rights Reserved _Printed in Great Britain by_ UNWIN BROTHERS, LIMITED, THE GRESHAM PRESS, LONDON AND WOKING CONTENTS PAGE I. THE DISCOVERY 11 II. THE FIRST JAR 31 III. THE SECOND JAR 43 IV. THE SMALL PEOPLE 59 V. DANGER TO THE JARS 83 VI. THE CAT, WAG, SLIM AND OTHERS 109 VII. THE BAT-BALL 135 VIII. WAG AT HOME 155 I THE DISCOVERY My Dear Jane, You remember that you were puzzled when I told you I had heard something from the owls--or if not puzzled (for I know you have some experience of these things), you were at any rate anxious to know exactly how it happened. Perhaps the time has now come for you to be told. It was really luck, and not any skill of mine, that put me in the way of it; luck, and also being ready to believe more than I could see. I have promised not to put down on paper the name of the wood where it happened: that can keep till we meet; but all the rest I can tell exactly as it came about. It is a wood with a stream at the edge of it; the water is brown and clear. On the other side of it are flat meadows, and beyond these a hillside quite covered with an oak wood. The stream has alder-trees along it, and is pretty well shaded over; the sun hits it in places and makes flecks of light through the leaves. The day I am thinking of was a very hot one in early September. I had come across the meadows with some idea of sitting by the stream and reading. The only change in my plans that I made was that instead of sitting down I lay down, and instead of reading I went to sleep.