tell!"

"Well, Ellen, let me have one of your own--your very best." And I went
for pencil and pad.

"And are ye going to pin down my story. Well, Miss, if ye take it just
as I say, and then fix it proper to be read, they'll like it, for people
are crazy now to get the true ghost stories of dear old Ireland. O Miss,
when you go over, don't forget my native place. It has a real castle and
a part of it is haunted, and the master doesn't like to live there--only
comes once a year or so, for hunting--and the rabbits there are as thick
as they can be and the river chuck full of fish, but no one can touch
any game, or even take out one fish, or they would be punished."

"Yes, Ellen it's hard, and all wrong, but we are wandering away from
your ghosts, and you know I am going to take notes. So begin."

"Well, Miss, I was a sort of companion or maid to a blind lady in my own
town. I slept in a little room just across the landing from hers, so as
to always be within reach of her. I was just going to bed, when she
called for me to come in and see if there was something in the
room--something alive, she thought, that had been hopping, hopping all
around her bed, and frightened her dreadfully, poor thing, for, you
remember, she was stone blind, Miss, which made it worse. So I hurried
in and I shook the curtains, looked behind the bureau and under the bed,
and tried everywhere for whatever might be hopping around, but could
find nothing and heard not a sound. While I was there all was still.
Then I went into my room again, and left the door open, as I thought
Miss Lacy would feel more comfortable about it, and I was hardly in my
bed when she called again and screamed out with fear, for It was hopping
round the bed. She said I must go down-stairs and bring a candle. So I
had to go down-stairs to the pantry all alone and get the candle. Then
I searched as before, but found nothing--not a thing. Well, my dear, I
went into my room and kept my candle lighted this time. The third time
she called me she was standing on her pillow, shivering with fright, and
begged me to bring the light. It was sad, because she was stone blind.
She told me how It went hopping around the room, with its legs tied
like. And after looking once more and finding nothing, she said I'd have
to sleep in the bed with her and bring a chair near the bed and put the
lighted candle on it. For a long time we kept awake, and watched and
listened, but nothing happened, no