"And so," continued my sister, "I exempt
Bottles. And considering, John, that the house
is too large, and perhaps too lonely, to be kept
well in hand by Bottles, you, and me, I propose
that we cast about among our friends for a
certain selected number of the most reliable
and willing — form a Society here for three
months — wait upon ourselves and one another
—live cheerfully and socially — and see what
happens."

I was so charmed with my sister, that I
embraced her on the spot, and went into her plan
with the greatest ardour.

We were then in the third week of November;
but, we took our measures so vigorously, and
were so well seconded by the friends in whom
we confided, that there was still a week of the
month unexpired, when our party all came down
together merrily, and mustered in the haunted
house.

I will mention, in this place, two small
changes that I made while my sister and I
were yet alone. It occurring to me as not
improbable that Turk howled in the house at
night, partly because he wanted to get out of
it, I stationed him in his kennel outside, but
unchained; and I seriously warned the village that
any man who came in his way must not expect
to leave him without a rip in his own throat. I
then casually asked Ikey if he were a judge of a
gun? On his saying, "Yes, sir, I knows a good
gun when I sees her," I begged the favour of
his stepping up to the house and looking at
mine.

"She's a true one, sir," said Ikey, after
inspecting a double-barreled rifle that I bought in
New York a few years ago. " No mistake about
her, sir."

"Ikey," said I, "don't mention it; I have
seen something in this house."

"No sir?" he whispered, greedily opening
his eyes. "'Ooded lady, sir?"

"Don't be frightened," said I. "It was a
figure rather like you."

"Lord, sir?"

"Ikey!" said I, shaking hands with him
warmly: I may say affectionately; "if there is
any truth in these ghost-stories, the greatest
service I can do you, is, to fire at that figure.
And I promise you, by Heaven and earth, I will
do it with this gun if I see it again!"

The young man thanked me, and took his
leave with some little precipitation, after declining
a glass of liquor. I imparted my secret
to him, because I had never quite forgotten his
throwing his cap at the bell; because I had, on
another occasion, noticed something very like a
fur cap, lying not far from the bell, one night
when it had burst out ringing; and because I
had remarked that we were at our ghostliest
whenever he came up in the evening to comfort
the servants. Let me do Ikey no injustice. He
was afraid of the house, and believed in its being
haunted; and yet he would play false on the
haunting side, so surely as he got an opportunity.
The Odd Girl's case was exactly similar.
She went about the house in a state of real
terror, and yet lied monstrously and wilfully,
and invented many of the alarms she spread, and
made many of the sounds we heard. I had had my
eye on the two, and I know it. It is not necessary
for me, here, to account for this preposterous
state of mind ; I content myself with remarking
that it is familiarly known to every intelligent
man who has had fair medical, legal, or other
watchful experience ; that it is as well
established and as common a state of mind as
any with which observers are acquainted ; and
that it is one of the first elements, above all
others, rationally to be suspected in, and strictly
looked for, and separated from, any question of
this kind.

To return to our party. The first thing we
did when we were all assembled, was, to draw
lots for bedrooms. That done, and every
bedroom, and, indeed, the whole house, having been
minutely examined by the whole body, we
allotted the various household duties, as if we
had been on a gipsy party, or a yachting
party, or a hunting party, or were ship-
wrecked. I then recounted the floating
rumours concerning the hooded lady, the owl,
and Master B.: with others, still more filmy,
which had floated about during our occupation,
relative to some ridiculous old ghost of the
female gender who went up and down, carrying
the ghost of a round table; and also to an
impalpable Jackass, whom nobody was ever able
to catch. Some of these ideas I really believe
our people below had communicated to one
another in some diseased way, without conveying
them in words. We then gravely called one
another to witness, that we were not there to
be deceived, or to deceive — which we
considered pretty much the same thing — and that,
with a serious sense of responsibility, we would
be strictly true to one another, and would
strictly follow out the truth. The understanding
was established, that any one who heard
unusual noises in the night, and who wished to trace
them, should knock at my door; lastly, that on
Twelfth Night, the last night of holy Christmas,
all our individual experiences since that then
present hour of our coming together in the
haunted house, should be brought to light for
the good of all; and that we would hold our
peace on the subject till then, unless on some
remarkable provocation to break silence.

We were, in number and in character, as
follows:

First — to get my sister and myself out of the
way — there were we two. In the drawing of
lots, my sister drew her own room, and I drew
Master B.'s. Next, there was our first cousin
John Herschel, so called after the great astronomer:
than whom I suppose a better man at a
telescope does not breathe. With him, was his
wife: a charming creature to whom he had been
married in the previous spring. I thought it
(under the circumstances) rather imprudent to
bring her, because there is no knowing what
even a false alarm may do at such a time; but
I suppose he knew his own business best, and I
must say that if she had been my wife, I never