The Project Gutenberg EBook of Curious, if True, by Elizabeth Gaskell

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Title: Curious, if True
Strange Tales

Author: Elizabeth Gaskell

Release Date: March 21, 2008 [EBook #24879]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

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CURIOUS, IF TRUE

STRANGE TALES

Mrs Gaskell

Contents

The Old Nurse's Story 1

The Poor Clare 26

Lois the Witch 88

The Grey Woman 187

Curious, if True 249

THE OLD NURSE'S STORY

You know, my dears, that your mother was an orphan, and an only child;
and I daresay you have heard that your grandfather was a clergyman up
in Westmoreland, where I come from. I was just a girl in the village
school, when, one day, your grandmother came in to ask the mistress if
there was any scholar there who would do for a nurse-maid; and mighty
proud I was, I can tell ye, when the mistress called me up, and spoke
of me being a good girl at my needle, and a steady, honest girl, and
one whose parents were very respectable, though they might be poor. I
thought I should like nothing better than to serve the pretty young
lady, who was blushing as deep as I was, as she spoke of the coming
baby, and what I should have to do with it. However, I see you don't
care so much for this part of my story, as for what you think is to
come, so I'll tell you at once. I was engaged and settled at the
parsonage before Miss Rosamond (that was the baby, who is now your
mother) was born. To be sure, I had little enough to do with her when
she came, for she was never out of her mother's arms, and slept by her
all night long; and proud enough was I sometimes when missis trusted
her to me. There never was such a baby before or since, though you've
all of you been fine enough in your turns; but for sweet, winning ways,
you've none of you come up to your mother. She took after her mother,
who was a real lady born; a Miss Furnivall, a grand-daughter of Lord
Furnivall's, in Northumberland. I believe she had n