A RAILWAY GHOST.

Waikato Times, Volume XXV, Issue 2066, 3 October 1885, Page 1 (Supplement)

A RAILWAY GHOST.

As there ia a fihoat in this story, aooording to all established rules it ought' to commence with ' once upon a time," but an I am somewhat of an iconoclast, not <»yen ouch a venerable figure o£ speech can escape annihilation at my hands. Ir.<t mo bo exact in ohronology at leasf. I had been hastily summoned from Cornwall to the bedaide of a wealthy old undo from whom I bad expectations, and as tho telegram informed me that he oonld not survive his present attack of gout, I thought it might be as well for me to be "in at the death," and so one foggy day in November, 1860, found me travelling to Ashbourne, a little, out-of theway place, where the oil gentleman lived. Tnere wero but few panßengeri on the train, and I had the comfort of a oarriage nil to my•elf. We stopped to co»l at some little waystation, when a 'passenger was hurriedly ushered, or rather banged, into my oompartment by the condnotor. Tho stranger was a tall, thm, raiddle-aqed man, with & face lean and withered like a shrivelled apple. In a dress tight fitting and of an ancient and faded black, he looked like a man who had run very muoh to seed, whioh perhaps accounted for tho luxuriant growth of his arms and legs. Observing his clothe* steaming with the damp air, I began to realize that it had suddenly become very cold. "Quite ft ohange in the weather," I remarked. " Very cold to-night, is it not ?" " Don't feel tho oold myself. Perhaps you would like to change places with me ; there is no draft here." I replied that I should be glad to do so if it did not inconvenienoa him, and accordingly we changed Beat?. It was cold, and no mistake. I must have taken a ohill, for I felt the oold creeping over mo in a most unaccountablo manner. Looking at my oomnnnion on the opposite spat, on whom the lamplight now shone full, I saw that his face was not so thin nor his features so withered as I at first supposed; and I must bate made a mistake as to his age, for he was by no means as old as I had previously judged. How cold it was, to be 'suro 1 As' I looked at him, I noticed that his aspect ohanged momently— that ho was growing younger ; that the wrinkles in his faco were filling out and smoothing down, and th&t he was gradually becoming l.ke some one I bad seen before. As his oheeks grew round and ruddy, and his hair changpd from gray to brown before my very eyes, I became nervous, and endeavoured to cry out, but could not. I was paralyzed with the cold— cold that seemed to make my limba rigid and benumb my vitals, for I saw that the man sitting before mo was no longer ft stringer— no more friend or acquaintance— he had beoomo me I I held up my hands to try to shut out the sight, and, as' I did bo, bo that they were withered, and thin, and old. I pressed them to my brow, to see if I were dreaming, and I found it shrivelled, and seamed, and puckered. And then I knew that this man— this fiend— had stolen my body, and given me bin. Maddened with the discovery, I rose to my feet— bis feet— which totterpd beneath me, and I struck wildly at the vision of myself on the other seat. But I found my arms light as vapor, for they passed over his body, which went through them, giving me the impression of pain. It was a body of shade tbat had been givon me for my own body of flosh and blood, which this wretch has Btolen. By some sorcery or another, we k had indeed changed places. " Soroerer— demon I " I criod out, only to hear myself speaking *?ith his sharp, craoked voico. When I saw myself sitting opposite to me, coolly addressing me in my own voice, I could no longer oredit my senses — if, indeed, I had any of them at all left of my own. "Dare say you think you are Bpeaking loud now," ho said. I answered by shouting for the conduotor as loudly as I could. "Ah, you might call a good deal louder than that. Why, if the carriage were full of passengers they could no more hear you than they could see you," he continued, chuckling, and screwing my features up into a hideously knowing grm, such as / could never have made them asbiime. " You see, my friend, yours is a body of air, of shadow, insensible,

impalpable to all but myself, just as it was to a'l but you when I entered the oftrrinpe. You wish, p2rhap«, to Know who I am. Well, two yrard a?o to night I wni a pa«cngor by this train. Thero was a collidion with a Btupid freight train, you sop, and the ronnlt was that several passengers were injured. One of them was — will, it's no uco mincing matters— lulled on the spot. Qiito so. It was I. Ye?, I am what you would call a ghost, although we d ) not orjuder that junt the current term among ourselves— we hare better word for it. Now I have told you whnt I am, yon will, doubtlasp, like to knew what I want. Very good j you chall ccc." The ghoat in my body then began to feel in my pockot?, from which he drew out my meersohnum, which he filled from my pouch and lit with one of my matches. "Ab," bo proceeded, puffing like a sUamengine, " you smoke very good stuff— natural leaf an Old Judge ; not a bad mixture, though I prefer a little Cavendish with it myßelf. Not at all a bad body of your?, either," he went on, eyeing the form in which he was sitting ; " not at all a bad body ; and it fits me to a T, only a little Bhort in the arms. By the way, I find one of your front teeth a little loose, so don't go and say I did that, when you come to yourself again ; and your noso is a little long for mo, but I dare say it blown none the worse for that." I shuddered as I saw him tako out my pocket-handkerchief and use it on that cherished organ of mine. "Vee, I dare s»y now yon feel the cold a little ; I did at first, but it's nothing when you are used to it. I find your body very warm —being heavier thaa I am accustomed to wear ; but it won't be for long. I require it ' positively for this night only,' as you say in your play-billa ; and will return it uninjured by the time we get to Ashbourne. By the byr, let me beg of you to be a little careful how you throw your arms about so muoh as you did jast now, for my body ia of a mpro delicate construction than yours ; and being so thin in substanco, I am afraid you will chafe it under the arm-pits. You will observe, Indies and gentlemen"' he went on, in lecturer's style, " that if I tako a lighted mitch and inbert it in the corner of the patient's eye, he will feel no pain." Saying thin, my dreadful companion proceeded to illustrate his remark by making a dive at my shadowy eye with a burning match. I certainly felt no pain as the match burned in my head. 1 You will allow, after all you see, that my shape has its advantages," the ghost proceeded ; " but it also bns its disadvantages. Try the pipe now." I tried to take the pipe —it dropped through my vapory finger?. He placed it in my mouth; I could not hold if, nor get a whiff from it " Precisely so," said the ghost. "Now, this is juat what ha? brought me here to-night. A great imoker nil my life, doing my twelve pipes a day regularly, I have been defunct these two years, ami during all that time I haven't had a smoke 1 Not a blessed draw. I miss my 'bacca dreadful. There is a provision made for smokers down with us, you will unders'.and; but we are governed by a Board of Directors whose general incapacity equals that of many of your city boards. Thero is a stock of bodies kept for smokers, so that if you want to enjoy a pipe you muct go into one of the bodies to get it. But if jou will believe me, the supply is so notoriously insufficient to meet the demand that thcie is no chance whatever for a new ghost to RPt a smoko. When I entered the eociety all the bodies were out in use, and booked for three years in advance. My name has been down on the books for two years, and there is no chance of my getting a body allotted to mo for a twejvemonth. Fanoy two years without a emoke 1 Why, sir, the incompetence of our Board is something awful. I oan only explain the reason why we put up with snoh gross mismanagement in the other world is because we have become so used to it in thi*. Our constitutions, however, ore being undermined to that extent that the Board has at length been coerced by popular feeling into passing a measure, empowering ghosts to render themselves visible to a single individual at a time, in order that they may effect a change of bodies for short periods, always with tho consent of the person in question, for the purpose of indulging in a habit which the directors say they • cannot, how ever, hut characterize as pernicious and injurious.' Giorgelll. and George Washing ton, both members of the Board, opposed the measure ; they, however, were left in a ridiculously small minority. Uuder this new act, I obtained your body." " You never had my consent, friend 1 " I cried. "It is vulgar to oall names, my friend," the ghost replied, smoothing my moustache with ray ringers; "but you are trifling. I Baked you to ohange places with me, and you agreed, as you must be well aware. Bat, dear me I here we are at Ashbourne ; but, however, I must finish my pipe— think of two years, and not a blessed draw, my friend 1 "