s of the interview: one was, that she told
him to look for her in the cellar; the other, that he asked her why
she wore a sun-bonnet, and she answered, "Because the lime has
spoilt my face." At this his failing senses forsook him, and when
consciousness returned his ghostly visitor had disappeared.

His hostess heard him in silence. As soon as breakfast was over she
requested him to accompany her to the cellar. Careful examination soon
revealed a spot where some of the stones with which it was paved had
been removed and afterward replaced. Assistants with proper tools were
procured, the stones were lifted, and after a few minutes of vigorous
digging a mass of lime was disclosed, in which was found imbedded
a quantity of calcined fragments of bone, which medical authority
afterward pronounced to be portions of a human skeleton. These poor
remains were carefully removed, placed in a box and interred in a
neighboring cemetery, and the "woman in a sun-bonnet" was seen no
more.

Subsequent investigation into the history of the old house revealed
the following facts. It had originally been occupied by a retired
sea-captain and his only son, the latter a wild, reckless youth of
evil character and confirmed bad habits. A young girl went to live
there as a servant, and for some months seemed well contented with her
place, but afterward she became gloomy and unhappy, and was frequently
seen in tears by the neighbors. At last she disappeared, and it was
given out by her employers that she had gone to visit some friends at
a distance, but she did not return, and suspicion was already directed
toward the old man and his son, when one morning the house was found
to be shut up, its inhabitants having found it expedient to remove
as silently and secretly as possible. The girl was never heard of
afterward. The discovery of the bones led to the supposition that the
younger man had seduced her, had afterward murdered her to conceal his
original crime, and that he had then buried the body in the cellar,
taking the precaution to cover it with quicklime.

As I said at the beginning of this article, I neither wish to propound
any theories nor to deduce any conclusions from the relations I have
given. I can only reiterate my statement that they came to me from
sources the reliability of which I cannot question. I have carefully
excluded everything relating to the supernatural which I ever heard
from the lips of ignorant and superstitious pe