ight which met his gaze. There,
upon the bed, lay the poor, unhappy girl swollen to an enormous size,
her body moving about the bed as if Beelzebub himself were in her, while
between her gasps for breath she exclaimed in agonizing sobs: "Oh, my
God, I wish I were dead! I wish I were dead!"

"Oh, don't say that, Esther," plead Olive, "don't say that."

"Now, Mr. Hubbell," said Jane to the author, "you see how much she
suffers."

"Yes, I see," said Hubbell, "but let us endeavor to hold her, so that
this fiend cannot move her about the bed, and then, perhaps, she will
not suffer so much." So Dan and himself tried to hold her so that she
could not be moved, but in vain.

"Well," said Hubbell, "one ghost is certainly stronger than two men. Are
you sure nothing can be done to relieve her?"

"No," replied Olive, "Dr. Caritte has tried everything without affording
her the slightest relief. Medicine has no more effect on her than
water."

Jane, Olive, Dan and the author remained up with her for about three
hours, during which time she continued to move about the bed, after
which the ghost left her and she sank from sheer exhaustion into a state
of lethargy. She had several attacks of this kind during the author's
residence in the cottage, and on one occasion she was seen by Mr. G.G.
Bird, Mr. Jas. P. Dunlap, Mr. Amos Purdy and several ladies; on another
occasion by Dr. E.D. McLean, Mr. Fowler and Mr. Sleep.

Towards the latter part of July the manifestations became so powerful
that it was no longer safe to have Esther in the house. Fires were
continually being started, the walls were being broken by chairs, the
bed clothes pulled off in the day time, heavy sofas turned upside down,
knives and forks thrown with such force that they would stick into
doors, food disappeared from the table, finger marks became visible in
the butter, and, worse than all, strange voices could be heard calling
the inmates by name in the broad light of day. This was too much; if the
ghosts continued to gain in strength they would take possession of the
house and all in it, for there were six ghosts, and only five persons in
the flesh all told, as follows: Dan, Olive, Jane, Esther and the
author, not, of course, counting the two children--William Cox and John
Teed having left the house before Esther went to St. John, literally
driven away by ghosts.

There was but one remedy, and that was that Esther Cox should leave the
house even though her s