t flit; and
I will do so with the morning's light.'

"But with the morning's light came bright and cheerful faces, kindly
inquiries, and renewed hospitality, and with them an abandonment of my
menaced departure. During the day an opportunity presented itself of
mentioning to my young host the harassing disturbances of the night, and
asking for an explanation.

"'I can give none,' was his reply: 'after many years residence in the
house, and ceaseless endeavors to ascertain the cause of these
annoyances, you are as much _au fait_ of their origin as myself.'

"'Is their[*sic] no motive, adequate or inadequate,' I continued, 'which
can be assigned for these nightly visitations?'

"'None beyond the tradition--apparently authentic--that an ancestor of
ours, a man whose character will not bear investigation, met his death,
unfairly, in an old house on the site of which this is built. He was a
miser, and presumed to be extremely wealthy. He lived secluded from
society; his factotum and agent being an Italian valet, who was perfectly
aware of the ample means of his master. On a sudden my vicious kinsman
disappeared, and shortly afterward the valet. But the story
runs--tradition it must still be called--that the former was robbed,
brutally beaten, and finally _walled up_ in some recess by his desperate
retainer. So immured he died of actual starvation; but according to the
legend, much of the miser's wealth continued hidden about the mansion
which the Italian's fears prevented his carrying off, and which still
remains, snug and safe, in some dusty repository, ready to reward "a
fortunate speculator." I only wish,' continued he merrily, 'I could light
upon the hoard! Give me a clew, dear Newburgh, and I'll buy you a troop.'

"'At any rate,' said I, 'from the mirth with which you treat it, the
visitation is not unpleasant.'

"'You are in error,' said my entertainer; 'the subject is unquestionably
annoying, and one which my mother and the family studiously avoid. As for
your bed-room--the porch-room--I am aware that parties occupying it have
occasionally heard the strangest noises on the gravel-walk immediately
below them. Your hostess was most averse to those quarters being assigned
you; but I thought that the room being large and lofty, and the steps to
it few, you would occupy it with comfort. I am grieved that my
arrangement has proved disagreeable.' And then, finishing off with a
hearty laugh, in which, for the life of me