LITERATURE.

Globe, Volume IV, Issue 327, 30 June 1875, Page 3

LITERATURE.

THE FAMILY GHOST.

( Concluded.')

* When I retured to the car, I found th® bottle empty, and John lying at the bottom of the car fhst asleep. Fortunately, as it seemed at the time, he had not drunk enough to do him serious harm, but the effect was as if he were intoxicated, and it would be best for him to sleep it off. But as we were driving homewards it occurred to me that I would not like to have him at my house any longer, and as it was not far out of my way to go round by the Plas, I determined to leave him there. When I reached the house every one was in bed, and not to be awakened. I made up a sort of nest for master John, with mats and rugs, upon the hallfloor, and drove homewards through the avenue, the white horse in the car showing conspicuously against the dark background of the night, and frightening our fiiend William and his companion, as I have told you. And that was how the accident happened to poor J ohn. When I reached home I had some medicine to make up, and hence the light in the surgery. ‘ W ell, not to keep you any longer in suspense, I may tell you that John was not killed—not even seriously hurt, and what happened to him in the wood-house he told me afterwards, and it pleased me so much that I will tell you all about it.

‘ He had not been long in the wood-house when the cold brought him to his senses. He was under the impression at first that he was still in the car, and that some one was leaning heavily upon him. That was the log, you remember, that they had placed against him. Well, he gave a violent push, the log fell to the ground, and he rose to his feet quite bewildered as to where he was. Seeing, however, the moonlight shining through a chink in the door, he maCle towards it, and tried to pull the door open. But the log he had pushed off him had s jammed itself against the door, and it was immovable Then it struck him that he was in prison. This narrow confined plac(, out '- of which it was impossible to get, must be a cell of the police lock-up. He had been riotous in his cups, no doubt, and the police had taken him up. He was very indignant at first that he, a, gentleman’s son, should be treated so, and he hammered violently at the door for some time, and shook it; but finding that nobody took any notice of him, he made up his mind to go to bed, ‘Feeling about with his hands, he discovered a kind of ledge on a heap of roots, where they had been taken away for household consumption. It was more on the level than you might suppose, the twigs and fragments and chips from the chopping filling up the crevices. Still it could not have been very soft. But John thought that it was the prison couch, and took off his things, down to his shirt and drawers. Then he crept- into bed, but found everything very uneasy. ‘They don’t shake their flocks out in prison, anyhow,’ was his first muttered thought, as he felt the sharp ends of the roots against his bones. ‘ This is the worst bed I ever was in ; I’m hanged if they don’t stuff their bolsters with chips ! And they are sparing of their blankets, too,’ he said to himself, groping here and there in vain for the bedclothes. ‘ Hi! police, police ! ’ he shouted, * come and make my bed properly.’ But nobody came; and then, in trying to make himself more comfortable, he seized a projecting root, and pulling violently at it, he brought down a whole shower of lumps of spiky wood upon him. He could endure no more, but jumped up, and seizing the first thing that came to hand, which happened to be the log lying against the door, he began to lay (about him violently, intending to break everything in the cell. The log having been removed, however, the door began to swing quietly open by its own weight, letting in a bright flood of moonlight. . ‘ Diaoul! ’ cried John, pleased, but frightened, at the result of his exertions, ‘ I’ve broken out of the lock-up ; I must run for it now.’ It was then that William saw the ghost. ‘ Away went John, and away went William and Meyrick pell mell; but poor John thought that the doctor’s stuff he now remembered to have swallowed had turned his brain. For, although he knew quitn well that he was running from the lock-up to his own home, and every step of the way was familiar to him, yet the evidence of his senses seemed to show just the contrary, and everything came to him back end foremost. There were the crags and the avenue and the bridge, but all in the wrong order ; and the police too, instead of their pursuing him, it seemed as if he were after them —two Hying policemen dashing along at their utmost speed in front of him. How they (lid run, those nimble constables ! ‘ They’re trying to cut off my retreat,’ said John himself; ‘but I’ll outpace them,’ For liberty is sweet, and the faster they ran the faster ran John, till at last they all burst in at my surgery door, one on the top of the other, frightening me into fits, waking up the baby and Mrs Evans, and setting all the dogs round about barking like mad. There, gentlemen. ‘ But,’ said one of the company, ‘ how was it he could run like that after the kick he’d had?’

‘ The grandmother’s best bonnet came in for that. A careless servant had left it in the bandbox upon the hall-floor, and it was found with the occipital part of it frightfully fractured. How did your grandmother take it, William ? ’ asked the doctor, turning to the hero of his tale, who had followed its progress with rapt attention, making only occasional gestures of dissent. * Well, indeed,’ replied William cheerfully, ‘ she was thankful it was no worse.’ F.T.