s faring, and rather wondering why he was gone so
long, resolved herself to visit the children's room. As the light from
her candle appeared on the threshold of the room the thing with the
wolf's head vanished.

"Why, whatever were you all doing?" she began. Then Santa Claus and the
children all spoke at once--whilst the sack of presents tumbled unheeded
on the floor. Every available candle was soon lighted, and mother and
father and Willie, Violet and Horace all spent the remainder of that
night in close company. On the following day it was proposed, and
carried unanimously, that the house should be put up for sale. This was
done at the earliest opportunity, and fortunately for the Andersons
suitable tenants were soon found. Before leaving, however, Mr. Anderson
made another and more exhaustive search of the grounds, and discovered,
in a cave in the hills immediately behind the house, a number of bones.
Amongst them was the skull of a wolf, and lying close beside it a human
skeleton, with only the skull missing. Mr. Anderson burnt the bones,
hoping that by so doing he would rid the house of its unwelcome visitor;
and, as his tenants so far have not complained, he believes that the
hauntings have actually ceased.

A lady whom I met at Tavistock some years ago told me that she had seen
a phantasm, which she believed to be that of a werwolf, in the Valley of
the Doones, Exmoor. She was walking home alone, late one evening, when
she saw on the path directly in front of her the tall grey figure of a
man with a wolf's head. Advancing stealthily forward, this creature was
preparing to spring on a large rabbit that was crouching on the ground,
apparently too terror-stricken to move, when the abrupt appearance of a
stag bursting through the bushes in a wild state of stampede caused it
to vanish. Prior to this occurrence, my informant had never seen a
ghost, nor had she, indeed, believed in them; but now, she assures me,
she is quite convinced as to their existence, and is of the opinion that
the sub-human phenomenon she had witnessed was the spirit of one of
those werwolves referred to by Gervase of Tilbury and Richard
Verstegan--werwolves who were still earthbound owing to their
incorrigible ferocity.

This opinion I can readily endorse, adding only that, considering the
number of werwolves there must once have been in England, it is a matter
of some surprise to me that phantasms are not more frequently seen.

Here is anot