The Night-Side of Nature; Or, Ghosts and Ghost-SeersCrowe, Catherine
Religion
The Night-Side of Nature; Or, Ghosts and Ghost-Seers
Crowe, Catherine
Ghosts; Parapsychology
Among other unpleasant things, while sitting all together
in the kitchen, they used to see the latch lifted and the door open,
though no one came in that they could see; and when Mr. C—— himself
watched for these events, although they took place, and he was quite on
the alert, he altogether failed in detecting any visible agent.
One night, the same servant who had heard the footsteps following her to
the bed-room fireplace, happening to be asleep in Mrs. C——’s chamber,
she became much disturbed, and was heard to murmur, “Wake me! wake me!”
as if in great mental anguish. Being aroused, she told her mistress a
dream she had had, which seemed to throw some light upon these
mysteries. She thought she was in the oak bed-room, and at one end of it
she saw a young female in an old-fashioned dress, with long dark hair,
while in another part of the room was a very ugly old woman, also in
old-fashioned attire. The latter addressing the former said, “What have
you done with the child, Emily? What have you done with the child?” To
which the younger figure answered, “Oh, I did not kill it. He was
preserved, and grew up, and joined the —— regiment, and went to
India.” Then addressing the sleeper, the young lady continued, “I have
never spoken to mortal before; but I will tell you all. My name is Miss
Black; and this old woman is Nurse Black. Black is not her name, but we
call her so because she has been so long in the family.” Here the old
woman interrupted the speaker by coming up and laying her hand on the
dreaming girl’s shoulder, while she said something; but she could not
remember what, for, feeling excruciating pain from the touch, she had
been so far aroused as to be sensible she was asleep, and to beg to be
wholly awakened.
As the old woman seemed to resemble the figure that one of the other
servants had seen looking into the window, and the young one resembled
that she had herself seen in the oak chamber, Mrs. C—— naturally
concluded that there was something extraordinary about this dream, and
she consequently took an early opportunity of inquiring in the
neighborhood what was known as to the names or circumstances of the
former inhabitants of this house; and, after much investigation, she
learned that, about seventy or eighty years before, it had been in the
possession of a Mrs. Ravenhall, who had a niece, named Miss Black,
living with her. This niece Mrs. C—— supposed might be the younger of
the two persons who was seen. Subsequently, she saw her again in the
same room, wringing her hands, and looking with a mournful significance
to one corner. They had the boards taken up on that spot, but nothing
was found.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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