THE DREAM.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXI, Issue 471, 24 August 1909, Page 3

THE DREAM.

HOW MRS PENNEY’S BODY WAS FOUND.

“ How did I dream it ? I don’t know,” said Mr Hugh Downs, who discovered Mrs Margaret Penuey’s body in the hills at the back of York Bay on Sunday, as the. result of a dream. “ I had been reading and talking about the missing woman. I knew her years ago ; but in those days she was much slighter-much smaller altogether. When did you have the dream ? “On Monday night of last week, and I was so sure that there was something in it that I could have found it the next day (Tuesday) just as easily as on the Sunday, but my work prevented me going so far from the Bay.” How far is it ?

“ The spur is above York Bay, well back, and it takes about an hour and three-quarters to walk from the Bay to the spot ; not that it is so far, but because of the rough road you have to take. “ I did not sleep well at all that Monday night, and could have only been dozing a few minutes when I had the dream. I could see it all so plainly. Eighteen months ago 1 had been over the ground clearing a line in the bush to check the spread of fires in the summer-time, just at the ti me a fire was on at the end of a long dry summer. I saw her lying just on the edge of the line, with her left hand under her head, her right hand resting on her bosom, and the body lying with the head towards the north, and her feet to the south.”

Did you dismiss it as a dream ? “No, I told my wife about it in the morning, and between that and Sunday last she told lots of other people. Then after I found the body, I asked the young fellows with me to question Mrs Downs as to what I had dreamed, and to them she corroborated all I had said before we told her anything. “ On Saturday afternoon I told Constable Simpson that I was going out on Sunday to bring the body in—l was so confident that there was something in my dream.

“When we found the body it was in such a position as I had dreamed, except for the right hand, which was resting nearer the shoulder than on her bosom. She was without her hat, skirt, stockings, and shoes, which, with the exception of her hat, were lying round her. It looked as if she had made a struggle at the end, but had been too weak to regain her feet.—Dominion.