and opened the courtains without
speaking a word'. The doctor determined not to begin a
conversation, so the apparition lighted the candles, brought them to
the bedside, and backed to the door. Dr. Rule, like old Brer
Rabbit, 'kept on a-saying nothing'. 'Then the apparition took an
effectuall way to raise the doctor. He caryed back the candles to
the table, and, _with the tongs_, took doun the kindled coals, and
laid them on the deal chamber floor.' Dr. Rule now 'thought it was
time to rise,' and followed the appearance, who carried the candles
downstairs, set them on the lowest step, and vanished. Dr. Rule
then lifted the candles, and went back to bed. Next morning he went
to the sheriff, and told him there 'was murder in it'. The sheriff
said, 'it might be so,' but, even if so, the crime was not recent,
as the house for thirty years had stood empty. The step was taken
up, and a dead body was found, 'and bones, to the conviction of
all'. The doctor then preached on these unusual events, and an old
man of eighty fell a-weeping, confessing that, as a mason lad, he
had killed a companion, and buried him in that spot, while the house
was being built. Consequently the house, though a new one, was
haunted from the first, and was soon deserted. The narrator, Mr.
Mercer, had himself seen two ghosts of murdered boys frequently in
Dundee. He did not speak, nor did they, and as the rooms were
comfortable he did not leave them. To have talked about the
incident would only have been injurious to his landlady. 'The
longer I live, the more unexpected things I meet with, and even
among my own relations,' says Mr. Wodrow with much simplicity. But
he never met with a ghost, nor even with any one who had met with a
ghost, except Mr. Mercer.

In the same age, or earlier, Increase Mather represents apparitions
as uncommonly scarce in New England, though diabolical possession
and witchcraft were as familiar as influenza. It has been shown
that, in nearly forty years of earnest collecting, Mr. Wodrow did
not find a single supernatural occurrence which was worth
investigating by the curious. Every tale was old, or some simple
natural cause was at the bottom of the mystery, or the narrative
rested on vague gossip, or was a myth. Today, at any dinner party,
you may hear of bogles and wraiths at first or at second hand, in an
abundance which would have rejoiced Wodrow. Charles Kirkpatrick
Sharpe vainly brags, in Law's Memor