The Haunted House
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THE HAUNTED HOUSE. THE EXTEA CHUISTMAS NUMBER OP ALL THE YEAH ROUND. CONDUCTED BY CHARLES DICKENS. cosTAiBiKa inz AMOTTST OF TWO OHDINABT NTJMBEES. CHRISTMAS, 1859, 4! r The Morttils in the House . The Gboit in the Cupboard &oom rTlio Gliost in tbe Clock Hooqt . Tho Ghost in Master B.'a Room . riTbe OltDst in the Double Room The Ghost in the Garden Room . Pmio Ghost in the Picturo Boom The Ghost in ths Corner Boom long. Ll addition to this unreasonable conduct THE MORTALS IN THE HOUSE. (which was only to he expected of him), he had fsDEE none of the accredited ghostly ctr- had a pencil and a pocket-book, and had been istauces, and environed by none of the con- perpetually listening and taking notes. It liad ap bional ghostly surroundings, did I first make peared to mc that these aggravating notes related dntance witb the honse which is the subject to the joUsand bumps of the carriage, and I should Christmas piece. I saw it in the day- have resigned myself to his taking them, under vith the sun upon it. There was no a general supposition that he was in the civU- . no rain, no lightning, no thunder, no awful eiigiueering way of life, if he had not sat staring unwonted circumstance, of any kind, to straight over my head whenever he listened. He liten its elTeet. More than that: I had come was a goggle-eyed gentleman of a perplexctl direct from a railway station; it was not aspect, and his demeanour became unbearable. I than a mile distant from tho railway sta- It was a cold, dead moming (the snn not heing ^j and, a^ I stood outside the bouse, looking up jet), and when I had out-watclied the paling upoij^lic way I had come, 1 could see the light of the fires of the iron country, and the ' tram niiminj? smoothly along the em- curtain of heavy smoke that hung at once lent in the valley. I will not say that het'ween me and the stars and between me and , tiling was utterly common-place, because I the day, I turned to my fellow-traveller and iioubt if anything can be that, except to utterly said : common-place people—and there my vanity steps " I beg your pardon, sir, but do you observe in; but, twill take it on mjself to say tliat aiiy- anything particular iu me P" For, really, he ap hoiiy might see the house as I saw it, any. fine peared to bc taking down, either my travelling* autumn morning. cap or my bair, with a minuteuess that was a The manner of my lighting on it whs this. liberty. I was travelling towards London out of the The goggle-eyed gentleman withdi'cw bis eyes Korth, intending to stop by the way, to look at from behind me, as if the back of the carriage lie bouse. My health required a teniporai-y were a hundred miles oiF, aud said, with a lofty residence in the country; and a friend of mine look of compassion for my iu&igni&cauce: who knew that, and who had happened to drive " In you, sir ?—B." past the house, had iivritten to me to suggest tt as " B, sir ?'* said I, growing warm. a hkely place. I had got into the tram nt mid- "I have nothiug to do with vou, sir," re nielit, and had fallen asleep, and had woke up aud turned the gentleman; "pray let me listen had sat looking out of wmdow at the brilliant —O." KorLlicrn Lights in tbe sky, and had fallen asleep He enunciated this vowel after a pause, and again, and had woke up agam to find the nigbt noted it down. gone, with the usual discontenled conviction on At first I was alarmed, for an Express Innatic mc tliat I hadn't been to sleep at all;—upon and no communication with the guard, is a serious which question, iu the first imbecility of that position. The thought came to my relief that Condition, I am ashamed to believe that I would the gentleman might he what is popularly called havo done wager by battle with the man wbo sat a Kappcr: one of a sect for (some of) vhom opposite mo. That opposite man had had, I have the highest respect, but whom t don't (lirough the night—aa that opposite man always hclieve in. I was going to ask him the qnestion, lias—several legs too many, and all of them too when he took the bread out of roy month. " You iriU exeoM me," said tbe -^ntlesiui, tained; the gentleman's epritna! intercourse contemptBowly, "U I am too mnch m advance seemed to mens poor a piece of ionrnoy.workas of common baraanity to double myself at all ever this world saw. In which heathen state of kbout it. I have pawed the night—u indeed I iniud, I came within view of the house, and pass the whole of my time now—in spiritual in stopped to eianiine it attentively. tercourse." It was a solitary house, standing bi a sadly " Oh!" aaid 1, something snappishly. neglected gardeu : a pretty even square of some " The CMiferenoes of the night beran," con- two lores. It was a bouse of about tke lime of tinned tbe geutleman, turning several leaves of George the Second; as stiff, aa cold, as formal his note-book, " with this message : ' Evil oom- and in u bad taste, as oould possihty he dcairad muiiications corrupt good manners,* ** by the most lojal admirer of the whole qunrtctt "Sound," said I; "but, absolutely newP" of Georges. It was iminhnbiti^ hul liad, within " New from spirits," returned the gentleman. a year or two, beeu cheaply repaired to render I eould only repeat my rather snappish " Oh !" it habitable; I say cheaply, becanse tho work and ask if I might be favoured with tbe last com had been done in a surface manner, and waa munication F already decaying as to the paint and plaster, " ' A bird in the hand,'" said the gentleman, though the colours were fresh. A lop-sided reading his last entry with great solemnity, " 'is board drooped over the garden wall, announcing worth two in the Bosh.' " that it was " to let on very reasonable terms, weU '* Truly I am of tbe same opinion^" said I; furnished." It was much too closely and heavily " but shouldn't it be Bush ?" shadowed by trees, aud. In particular, there " It came to me. Bosh," retumed the gentle were six tall poplars before the frout wbdows, man. which were excessively melancholy, and the site The gentleman then informed me that the of which had been extremely ill chosen. spirit of Soorates had delivered this special reve It was easy to see that it was an avoided lation iu the coarse of the night. " My friend, house—a house that was shunned by the villagr, I hope you are pretty well. There are two in to which my eye was guided by a church spire thia railway carnage. How do you do ? There aome half a mile off—a house that nobody would are seventeen thousand four hundred audseventy- take. And the natural inference was, that it nine spirits here, but you cannot see them. had the reputation of being a haunted house. Pythagoras is here. He is not at liberty to No period within the tonr-and-twenty hours menlion it, but hopes you Uke travelling," of day and night, is so solemn to me, as tlic Galileo likewise had aropped in, with this scien early moming. In the summer time, I often tific inteUigence, " I am glad to see you, amico. rise very early, and repair to my room to Come sta? Water will freeze when it is cold do a day's work before breakfast, and I am enough. Addio,'" In the course of the night, always on those occasions deeply impressed hy also, the following phenomena had occurred. the stillness aud solitude aronna nio. Besides Bishop Butler had insisted on spellmg his name, that there is something awful in the heing sur " Bnbler," for wliich offence agaiust orthography rounded by familiar faces asleep—in the know and good manners he had been dismissed as out ledge thai those who are dearest to us and lo of tenijwr. John Milton (suspected of wilful whom wc are dearest, are profoundlr uncon mystification) bad repudiated the author scious of us, in an impassive state anticipntivc of ship of Paradise Lost, and had introduced, that mysterious conaition to which we are all as joint authors of that poem, two Unknown lending—the stopped life, the broken threads gentlemen, respectively named Grungers and of yesterday, the deserted seat, the closed book, Scadgiowtone. And Prinee Arthur, nephew of the unfinished hut abandoned occupation, all King John of England, had described himself as are images of DeatL The tranquOhty of tolerably comfortable in the seventh circle, the hour is the tranquillity of Death. The where he was learning to paint on velvet, under colonr and the chill nave the same associa- tbe direction of Mrs. Trimmer and Maiy Queen Hon. Even a certain air that famih'nr house of Scots. hold objects fake upon them when they first If this should meet the eye of the gentleman emerge from the shadows of the night iuto who favoured me wilh these disclosures, I trust the morning,' of being newer, and as they he will excuse my confessing that the sight of used to be long ago, has its counterpart in the the rising sun, and the coutemplatlon en the subsidence of the wora face of maturity or age, magnificent Order of the vast Universe, made in death, into the old youthful look.