get a chair which she had left near it,
rushed from the room with a scream, and,
having recovered her speech at the farther
end of the "kitchen," and surrounded by
a gaping audience, she said, at last:

"May I never sin, if his face bain't riz
up again the back o' the bed, and he starin'
down to the doore, wid eyes as big as
pewter plates, that id be shinin' in the
moon!"

"Arra, woman! Is it cracked you are?"
said one of the farm boys, as they are
termed, being men of any age you please.

"Agh, Molly, don't be talkin', woman!
'Tis what ye consayted it, goin' into the
dark room, out o' the light. Why didn't
ye take a candle in your fingers, ye aumadhaun?"
said one of her female companions.

"Candle, or no candle; I seen it,"
insisted Molly. " An' what's more, I could
a'most take my oath I seen his arum, too,
stretchin' out o' the bed along the flure,
three times as long as it should be, to take
hould o' me be the fut."

"Nansinse, ye fool, what id he want o'
yer fut?" exclaimed one, scornfully.

"Gi'e me the candle, some o' yez—in the
name o' God," said old Sal Doolan, that
was straight and lean, and a woman that
could pray like a priest almost.

"Give her a candle," cried one.

"Ay, give her a candle," agreed all.

But whatever they might say, there
wasn't one among them that did not look
pale and stern enough as they followed
Mrs. Doolan, who was praying as fast as
her lips could patter, and leading the van
with a tallow candle, held like a taper, in
her fingers.

The door was half open, as the panic-
stricken girl had left it; and holding the
candle on high the better to examine the
room, she made a step or so into it.

If my grand-uncle's hand had been
stretched along the floor, in the unnatural
way described, he had drawn it back again
under the sheet that covered him. And
tall Mrs. Doolan was in no danger of tripping
over his arm as she entered. But she
had not gone more than a step or two with
her candle aloft, when, with a frowning
face, she suddenly stopped short, staring
at the bed which was now fully in view.

"Lord, bless us, Mrs. Doolan, ma'am,
come back," said the woman next her, who
had fast hold of her dress, or her "coat"
as they call it, and drawing her backwards
with a frightened pluck, while a general
recoil among her followers betokened the
alarm which her hesitation had inspired.

"Whisht, will yez?" said the leader,
peremptorily, "I can't hear my own ears
wid the noise ye're makin', an' which iv
yez let the cat in here, an' whose cat is
it?" she asked, peering suspiciously at a
white cat that was sitting on the breast of
the corpse.

"Put it away, will yez?" she resumed,
with horror at the profanation. "Many a
corpse as I sthretched and crossed in the
bed, the likes o' that I never seen yet. The
man o' the house, wid a brute baste like
that mounted on him, like a phooka, Lord
forgi'e me for namin' the like in this room.
Dhrive it away, some o' yez? out o' that,
this minute, I tell ye."

Each repeated the order, but no one
seemed inclined to execute it. They were
crossing themselves, and whispering their
conjectures and misgivings as to the nature
of the beast, which was no cat of that
house, nor one that they had ever seen
before. On a sudden, the white cat placed
itself on the pillow over the head of the
body, and having from that place glared
for a time at them over the features of the
corpse, it crept softly along the body
towards them, growling low and fiercely as
it drew near.

Out of the room they bounced, in dreadful
confusion, shutting the door fast after
them, and not for a good while did the
hardiest venture to peep in again.

The white cat was sitting in its old place,
on the dead man's breast, but this time it
crept quietly down the side of the bed, and
disappeared under it, the sheet which was
spread like a coverlet, and hung down nearly
to the floor, concealing it from view.

Praying, crossing themselves, and not
forgetting a sprinkling of holy water,
they peeped, and finally searched, poking
spades, "wattles," pitchforks, and such
implements under the bed. But the cat
was not to be found, and they concluded
that it had made its escape among their
feet as they stood near the threshold. So
they secured the door carefully, with hasp
and padlock.

But when the door was opened next
morning they found the white cat sitting,
as if it had never been disturbed, upon the
breast of the dead man.

Again occurred very nearly the same
scene with a like result, only that some
said they saw the cat afterwards lurking
under a big box in a corner of the outer room,
where my grand-uncle kept his leases and
papers, and his prayer-book and beads.

Mrs. Doolan heard it growling at her