t for the world your
mistress heard it! I left her fast asleep, and I hope she'll sleep
through it.--Did you ever hear anything strange about the house before
we came?' 'Never, sir,' said I, 'as sure as I stan' here
shiverin'!'--for the nicht was i' the simmer, an' warm to that degree!
an' yet I was shiverin' as i' the cauld fit o' a fivver; an' my moo'
wud hardly consent to mak the words I soucht to frame!

"We stood like mice 'afore the cat for a minute or twa, but there cam
naething mair; an' by degrees we grew a kin' o' ashamet, like as gien
we had been doobtfu' as to whether we had h'ard onything; an' whan
again he said to me gang to my bed, I gaed to my bed, an' wasna lang
upo' the ro'd, for fear I wud hear onything mair--an' intil my bed, an'
my heid 'aneth the claes, an' lay trim'lin'. But there was nane mair o'
't that nicht, an' I wasna ower sair owercome to fa' asleep.

"I' the mornin' I tellt the hoosekeeper a' aboot it; but she held her
tongue in a mainner that was, to say the least o' 't, varra strange.
She didna lauch, nor she didna grue nor yet glower, nor yet she didna
say the thing was nonsense, but she jist h'ard an' h'ard an' saidna a
word. I thoucht wi' mysel', is't possible she disna believe me? but I
couldna mak that oot aither. Sae as she heild her tongue, I jist pu'd
the bridle o' mine, an' vooed there should be never anither word said
by me till ance she spak hersel'. An' I wud sune hae had eneuch o'
haudin' my tongue, but I hadna to haud it to onybody but her; an' I cam
to the conclusion that she was feart o' bein' speirt questons by them
'at had a richt to speir them, for that she had h'ard o' something
'afore, an' kenned mair nor she was at leeberty to speak aboot.

"But that was only the beginnin', an' little to what followed! For frae
that nicht there was na ae nicht passed but some ane or twa disturbit,
an' whiles it was past a' bidin.' The noises, an' the rum'lin's, an'
abune a' the clankin' o' chains, that gaed on i' that hoose, an' the
groans, an' the cries, an' whiles the whustlin', an' what was 'maist
waur nor a', the lauchin', was something dreidfu', an' 'ayont believin'
to ony but them 'at was intil't. I sometimes think maybe the terror o'
't maks it luik waur i' the recollection nor it was; but I canna keep
my senses an' no believe there was something a'thegither by ord'nar i'
the affair. An' whan, or lang, it cam to the knowledge o' the lady, an'
she was waukit up at nicht, an'