t
t' sir and doctor both agreed it would not du to keep her langer out
o' her place, and no one cared but just them two, and my aunt and the
rest o' us, from Applewale, to go to the buryin'. So the old lady of
Applewale was laid in the vault under Lexhoe Church; and we lived up
at the great house till such time as the squire should come to tell
his will about us, and pay off such as he chose to discharge.

"I was put into another room, two doors away from what was Dame
Crowl's chamber, after her death, and this thing happened the night
before Squire Chevenix came to Applewale.

"The room I was in now was a large square chamber, covered wi' yak
pannels, but unfurnished except for my bed, which had no curtains to
it, and a chair and a table, or so, that looked nothing at all in such
a big room. And the big looking-glass, that the old lady used to keek
into and admire herself from head to heel, now that there was na mair
o' that wark, was put out of the way, and stood against the wall in my
room, for there was shiftin' o' many things in her chamber ye may
suppose, when she came to be coffined.

"The news had come that day that the squire was to be down next
morning at Applewale; and not sorry was I, for I thought I was sure to
be sent home again to my mother. And right glad was I, and I was
thinkin' of a' at hame, and my sister Janet, and the kitten and the
pymag, and Trimmer the tike, and all the rest, and I got sa fidgetty,
I couldn't sleep, and the clock struck twelve, and me wide awake, and
the room as dark as pick. My back was turned to the door, and my eyes
toward the wall opposite.

"Well, it could na be a full quarter past twelve, when I sees a
lightin' on the wall befoore me, as if something took fire behind, and
the shadas o' the bed, and the chair, and my gown, that was hangin'
from the wall, was dancin' up and down on the ceilin' beams and the
yak pannels; and I turns my head ower my shouther quick, thinkin'
something must a gone a' fire.

"And what sud I see, by Jen! but the likeness o' the ald beldame,
bedizened out in her satins and velvets, on her dead body, simperin',
wi' her eyes as wide as saucers, and her face like the fiend himself.
'Twas a red light that rose about her in a fuffin low, as if her dress
round her feet was blazin'. She was drivin' on right for me, wi' her
ald shrivelled hands crooked as if she was goin' to claw me. I could
not stir, but she passed me straight by, wi' a blast o' cal