ited States. Where the ghosts got
it no one knows. It had never been seen in Amherst, so far as had been
ascertainable, until it fell upon the floor, and its true origin will
doubtless always remain a mystery.

It is hardly necessary that the author should weary the reader with a
minute account of the manifestations produced by these ghosts during his
residence of six weeks in the haunted house, he could easily fill a book
containing twice the number of pages that this one does, with an account
of what was done by the ghosts alone, without mentioning the name of a
single living individual except Esther Cox; but I suppose the reader, by
this time, is ready to cry "_quantum sufficit_." So by referring to a
few more facts, he will end this chapter.

One afternoon, while Esther was out walking, she called on Rev. R.A.
Temple. During the visit he prayed with her, and also advised her to
pray for herself. On her return to the cottage, one of the ghosts,
either Bob or Maggie, cut her on the head with an old bone from the
yard, and a moment afterwards stabbed her in the face with a fork.

While the author lived in the house, scarcely a day passed that some
article was not thrown by the ghosts. They would often steal small
articles and keep them secreted--Heavens only knows where--for days at a
time, and then unexpectedly let them fall in one of the rooms, to the
amazement of every one. In that way, shoes and stockings, knives, forks
and other articles too numerous to mention would be missed, sometimes
for weeks, and on one occasion some copper coins were taken from Dan's
pocket and placed upon the author's knee.

It was a common thing for the ghosts to throw knives at the author, but
fortunately they were all dull and he was never cut; he was, however,
often struck by small articles, never sufficiently hard, however, to
draw blood. During his stay in the house, Esther often went into a state
very similar to the mesmeric sleep, during which she talked with people
invisible to all present; among others, her dead mother. On coming out
of this strange state she always said she had been to heaven among the
angels.

On several occasions, Bob, the head ghost, tormented her so at night
that it was with difficulty she could remain in bed. On one particular
occasion the author was called up by Dan at midnight so that he might
behold for himself what was going on. After dressing, he went into
Esther's room, and was horrified by the s