enjoyed by everyone as the last of the really warm
weather.

In the matter of sunshine England cannot be compared with these islands,
for taking our much-favoured Devonshire, and comparing the hours of
sunshine for December, January, and February, I find that in the Channel
Islands the sun shews its face just double the number of hours that it
does in fertile Devon.

In my garden on January 25th I had peas a foot above ground. How I
should have liked to shew my father these, he would scarcely have
believed his eyes, for April 25th in Norfolk, would not have produced
anything much more forward.

Now, having mentioned my father, I must tell a curious incident which
happened concerning him upon the last day of January. About eight
o'clock in the evening I was sitting finishing a sketch of Crevichon,
with my dog lying asleep near the fire, when he suddenly half raised
himself, and looking towards the other end of the room commenced to
whine.

I followed his eyes, and there to my astonishment sat my father. He sat
on a stool facing me, with his leg, which was enveloped in a huge
covering, upon another stool. His right hand rested upon the covered
leg, while his left was placed upon his heart. As the dog whined he
looked straight at me, and in his well-known voice said,

"It's all right, Harry, my boy, but it _was_ a shake!"

I stood up to rush to him, but as I rose he melted away, leaving nothing
but the two empty seats. I was staggered, but calm immediately, for I
had read of things of this kind before, and concluded that my father had
met with some accident, and had thus by some unknown means communicated
with me in spirit.

[Illustration: A GHOSTLY VISITANT.]

I knew nothing of the why or wherefore of this wonderful means of
communication between two persons, but judged that in this case it
happened in this wise. My father had met with a severe accident, which
he was probably afraid might have had a fatal termination, that his
thoughts were intent upon me, his absent son. As he intently thought of
me, and how he should like to speak to me, he may have actually spoken
the words to himself, which by some unknown means I heard apparently
fall from his own lips, and in his very voice.

The words assured me of his safety, and therefore beyond taking a note
of the day and the hour, I did not trouble myself much more about the
curious incident.

While on this subject of the apparently supernatural, I will mention on