is, so they've persuaded me to give her a chance
by movin' of her."

"I suppose, then, you think Old Mother
Redbhurn prevents her getting well?"

"No one else, sir, darn her!" was the
emphatic reply.

I then asked him how it came to pass that
Mrs. Redburn had bewitched his " missis."

"Many years ago, sir, Mrs. Redburn came
to our back door to borrow some ' tators,' which
my wife refused. Words ensued, and soon
afterwards my wife's eyesight began to fail her.
There was another dispute, about some cabbages,
and then the ' old woman ' became blind, deaf,
and bedridden, all through offending Mrs.
Redburn."

I gave the required certificate. In due time,
Smith, wife, and belongings, went away in a
cart. Marvellous to relate, the very night she
arrived in her new habitation, Mrs. Smith sat
up; subsequently she acquired her hearing, and
altogether improved in a most astonishing manner
— a simple example of relief from mental
anxiety which had acted upon a weak intellect,
thereby impairing certain faculties. The cataract
in both eyes remained, however, as an
unimpeachable witness.

On another occasion I was called to see a
young woman said to be very ill. The cottage
in which her family resides is one of the most
remote in North-street, and I had to traverse
half a mile of mud and slush, often up to my
horse's knees, before reaching the door.

Mrs. Brown, the mother of my patient, said
her daughter was just getting up, so I sat
and chatted with her for a few minutes until the
girl should make her appearance. Presently
Miss Brown descended from her sleeping apartment
by a sort of ladder. I have seldom beheld
a countenance more expressive of mental depression
Her face was haggard and deadly pale,
the perspiration stood in beads on her forehead,
her dishevelled hair fell in tangled masses over
her shoulders. There was no mistaking the
nervous origin of her complaint. Mrs. Brown
was a fat, jolly-looking person, anything but
nervous. In our short conversation she said that
her daughter could never sleep at night on
account of " seeing all manner of things."

"How long has this been the case?" I asked.

"Ever since she slept in the bed she now
occupies."

"What! " I said, scarcely able to refrain
from laughing. " You don't mean to say that
' Old Mother Redburn' has bewitched your
bedstead?"

"There's no mistake about it," she replied,
with a manner of perfect sincerity: " and what's
more, I never believed in it, no more than you,
sir, until I tried it one night myself, and I never
want to try it no more."

To satisfy her daughter, she had consented
to sleep in her bed one night, never believing
for a moment but that the things she said
she saw and felt were " all fancy." She
slumbered quietly until twelve o'clock, when she
was suddenly awakened by something jumping
heavily upon the bed. She opened her eyes,
and saw, by the light of the moon, a big black
dog standing by her side. The dog then
proceeded to sit down upon her chest, with his
back towards her, and as he wagged his tail to
and fro he brushed her face with it. She tried
to call out for help, but for a long time could
not do so. At last she regained her speech
sufficiently to say, "Old Mother Redburn, that's
you!" when the dog leaped off the bed with a
great thump, and she distinctly heard the
tapping of his claws upon the boards as he walked
across the floor and down the ladder. Neither
she nor any of the neighbours had a dog of the
kind. Besides, how could he have got in when
all the doors and windows were fastened? She
had not eaten anything heavy for supper. Of
course the most obvious plan of treatment for
the daughter was to recommend her no longer
to sleep upon a bedstead possessing such
remarkable qualities, but to this it was objected
that there was no other bedstead in the house for
her; so I advised her to sleep on the floor, but
this proposal was rejected as a mean compromise.
I asked Mrs. Brown if she would let me
have the bedstead to try its properties for
myself, but she said it would be sure to lose its
virtues (or rather vices) by removal, but I
was welcome to come and occupy it any night
I chose. This offer I did not accept, fearing a
manifestation of smaller animals than the big
black dog. The girl herself could be induced
to say very little about her experiences; but
judging by her countenance, the horrors she
suffered were far greater than those which
her mother related. She gradually recovered,
but still has a very nervous frightened expression
of face.

Not long ago a man living in the North-
street district fell from a hayrick, broke
some of his ribs, and otherwise damaged
himself. He is a respectable middle-aged man,
and from the knowledge I have of his character,
I do not think he would be guilty of telling a
deliberate untruth. As I was sitting by his
bedside a few days after his accident, his wife
remarked:

"Have you heard the curious dream my master
had about his fall, doctor?"

Upon my saying that I had not, the man told me
that on the night beforc the accident he dreamed
he was standing upon the hayrick they had been
building the day before, and that he fell off a
particular corner of it. He woke up in a terrible
fright, but, did not say anything to his " missis"
for fear of alarming her.  The next morning he
had to work upon the rick, and felt a constant
and, to him, unnaccountable dread lest he should
fall off. Towards the afternoon he was standing
at the particular corner from which he had fallen
in his dream, "when," said he, 'summat took
me just under the loins and threw me off."
Clearly here was Old Mother Redburn again.

There lives in a tiny cottage, all by herself
another old woman who possesses all the personal
peculiarities supposed to belong to a witch.
She is very short and crooked, has a long