longer than in America, ghosts naturally
accumulated. In this country there are houses and places haunted by
ghosts of Hessians, and Yankee ghosts, not to mention the headless Dutch
phantom of Tarrytown, that turned out to be Brom Bones; but who ever
heard of the ghost of an Indian? And as for the ghost of a black man,
evidently it would have to appear by daylight. You couldn't see it in
the dark!

I have no room to even enumerate the cases of haunted houses. One in
Aix-la-Chapelle, a fine large house, stood empty five years on account
of the knockings in it, until it was sold for almost nothing, and the
new owner (lucky man!) discovered that the ghost was a draft through a
broken window that banged a loose door. An English gentleman once died,
and his heir, in a day or two, heard of mysterious knockings which the
frightened servants attributed to the defunct. He, however, investigated
a little, and found that a rat in an old store room, was trying to get
out of an old-fashioned box trap, and being able to lift the door only
partly, it dropped again, constituting the ghost. Better pleased to find
the rat than his father, the young man exterminated rat and phantom
together.

A very ancient and impressive specimen of a haunted house was the palace
of Vauvert, belonging to King Louis IX, of France, who was so pious that
he was called Saint Louis. This fine building was so situated as to
become very desirable, in the year 1259, to some monks. So there was
forthwith horrid shriekings at night-times, red and green lights shone
through the windows, and, finally, a large green ghost, with a white
beard and a serpent's tail, came every midnight to a front window, and
shook his fist, and howled at those who passed by. Everybody was
frightened--King Louis, good simple soul! as well as the rest. Then the
bold monks appearing at the nick of time, intimated that if the King
would give them the palace, they would do up the ghost in short order.
He did it, and was very thankful to them besides. They moved in, and
sure enough, the ghost appeared no more. Why should he?

The ghosts of Woodstock are well known. How they tormented the Puritan
Commissioners who came thither in 1649, to break up the place, and
dispose of it for the benefit of the Commonwealth! The poor Puritans had
a horrid time. A disembodied dog growled under their bed, and bit the
bed-clothes; something invisible walked all about; the chairs and tables
danced; somethi