I was travelling towards London out of the North, intending to stop by the way, to look at the house. My health required a temporary residence in the country; and a friend of mine who knew that, and who had happened to drive past the house, had written to me to suggest it as a likely place. I had got into the train at midnight, and had fallen asleep, and had woke up and had sat looking out of window at the brilliant Northern Lights in the sky, and had fallen asleep again, and had woke up again to find the night gone, with the usual discontented conviction on me that I hadn't been to sleep at all;—upon which question, in the first imbecility of that condition, I am ashamed to believe that I would have done wager5 by battle with the man who sat opposite me. That opposite man had had, through the night—as that opposite man always has—several legs too many, and all of them too long. In addition to this unreasonable6 conduct (which was only to be expected of him), he had had a pencil and a pocket-book, and had been perpetually listening and taking notes. It had appeared to me that these aggravating7 notes related to the jolts8 and bumps of the carriage, and I should have resigned myself to his taking them, under a general supposition that he was in the civil-engineering way of life, if he had not sat staring straight over my head whenever he listened. He was a goggle-eyed gentleman of a perplexed9 aspect, and his demeanor10 became unbearable11.
It was a cold, dead morning (the sun not being up yet), and when I had out-watched the paling light of the fires of the iron country, and the curtain of heavy smoke that hung at once between me and the stars and between me and the day, I turned to my fellow-traveller and said:
"I BEG your pardon, sir, but do you observe anything particular in me?" For, really, he appeared to be taking down, either my travelling-cap or my hair, with a minuteness that was a liberty.
The goggle-eyed gentleman withdrew his eyes from behind me, as if the back of the carriage were a hundred miles off, and said, with a lofty look of compassion13 for my insignificance14:
"In you, sir?—B."
"B, sir?" said I, growing warm.
"I have nothing to do with you, sir," returned the gentleman; "pray let me listen—O."
At first I was alarmed, for an Express lunatic and no communication with the guard, is a serious position. The thought came to my relief that the gentleman might be what is popularly called a Rapper: one of a sect18 for (some of) whom I have the highest respect, but whom I don't believe in. I was going to ask him the question, when he took the bread out of my mouth.
"You will excuse me," said the gentleman contemptuously, "if I am too much in advance of common humanity to trouble myself at all about it. I have passed the night—as indeed I pass the whole of my time now—in spiritual intercourse19."
"O!" said I, somewhat snappishly.
"The conferences of the night began," continued the gentleman, turning several leaves of his note-book, "with this message: 'Evil communications corrupt20 good manners.'"
"Sound," said I; "but, absolutely new?"
"New from spirits," returned the gentleman.
I could only repeat my rather snappish "O!" and ask if I might be favored with the last communication.
"'A bird in the hand,'" said the gentleman, reading his last entry with great solemnity, "'is worth two in the Bosh.'"
"Truly I am of the same opinion," said I; "but shouldn't it be
Bush?"
"It came to me, Bosh," returned the gentleman.
The gentleman then informed me that the spirit of Socrates had delivered this special revelation in the course of the night. "My friend, I hope you are pretty well. There are two in this railway carriage. How do you do? There are seventeen thousand four hundred and seventy-nine spirits here, but you cannot see them. Pythagoras is here. He is not at liberty to mention it, but hopes you like travelling." Galileo likewise had dropped in, with this scientific intelligence. "I am glad to see you, amico. Come sta? Water will freeze when it is cold enough. Addio!" In the course of the night, also, the following phenomena21 had occurred. Bishop22 Butler had insisted on spelling his name, "Bubler," for which offence against orthography23 and good manners he had been dismissed as out of temper. John Milton (suspected of wilful24 mystification) had repudiated25 the authorship of Paradise Lost, and had introduced, as joint26 authors of that poem, two Unknown gentlemen, respectively named Grungers and Scadgingtone. And Prince Arthur, nephew of King John of England, had described himself as tolerably comfortable in the seventh circle, where he was learning to paint on velvet27, under the direction of Mrs. Trimmer and Mary Queen of Scots.
If this should meet the eye of the gentleman who favored me with these disclosures, I trust he will excuse my confessing that the sight of the rising sun, and the contemplation of the magnificent Order of the vast Universe, made me impatient of them. In a word, I was so impatient of them, that I was mightily28 glad to get out at the next station, and to exchange these clouds and vapors29 for the free air of Heaven.
By that time it was a beautiful morning. As I walked away among such leaves as had already fallen from the golden, brown, and russet trees; and as I looked around me on the wonders of Creation, and thought of the steady, unchanging, and harmonious30 laws by which they are sustained; the gentleman's spiritual intercourse seemed to me as poor a piece of journey-work as ever this world saw. In which heathen state of mind, I came within view of the house, and stopped to examine it attentively31.
It was a solitary32 house, standing33 in a sadly neglected garden: a pretty even square of some two acres. It was a house of about the time of George the Second; as stiff, as cold, as formal, and in as bad taste, as could possibly be desired by the most loyal admirer of the whole quartet of Georges. It was uninhabited, but had, within a year or two, been cheaply repaired to render it habitable; I say cheaply, because the work had been done in a surface manner, and was already decaying as to the paint and plaster, though the colors were fresh. A lop-sided board drooped34 over the garden wall, announcing that it was "to let on very reasonable terms, well furnished." It was much too closely and heavily shadowed by trees, and, in particular, there were six tall poplars before the front windows, which were excessively melancholy35, and the site of which had been extremely ill chosen.
It was easy to see that it was an avoided house—a house that was shunned36 by the village, to which my eye was guided by a church spire37 some half a mile off—a house that nobody would take. And the natural inference was, that it had the reputation of being a haunted house.
No period within the four-and-twenty hours of day and night is so solemn to me, as the early morning. In the summer-time, I often rise very early, and repair to my room to do a day's work before breakfast, and I am always on those occasions deeply impressed by the stillness and solitude38 around me. Besides that there is something awful in the being surrounded by familiar faces asleep— in the knowledge that those who are dearest to us and to whom we are dearest, are profoundly unconscious of us, in an impassive state, anticipative of that mysterious condition to which we are all tending—the stopped life, the broken threads of yesterday, the deserted40 seat, the closed book, the unfinished but abandoned occupation, all are images of Death. The tranquillity41 of the hour is the tranquillity of Death. The color and the chill have the same association. Even a certain air that familiar household objects take upon them when they first emerge from the shadows of the night into the morning, of being newer, and as they used to be long ago, has its counterpart in the subsidence of the worn face of maturity42 or age, in death, into the old youthful look. Moreover, I once saw the apparition43 of my father, at this hour. He was alive and well, and nothing ever came of it, but I saw him in the daylight, sitting with his back towards me, on a seat that stood beside my bed. His head was resting on his hand, and whether he was slumbering44 or grieving, I could not discern. Amazed to see him there, I sat up, moved my position, leaned out of bed, and watched him. As he did not move, I spoke45 to him more than once. As he did not move then, I became alarmed and laid my hand upon his shoulder, as I thought—and there was no such thing.
For all these reasons, and for others less easily and briefly46 statable, I find the early morning to be my most ghostly time. Any house would be more or less haunted, to me, in the early morning; and a haunted house could scarcely address me to greater advantage than then.
I walked on into the village, with the desertion of this house upon my mind, and I found the landlord of the little inn, sanding his door-step. I bespoke47 breakfast, and broached48 the subject of the house.
"Is it haunted?" I asked.
The landlord looked at me, shook his head, and answered, "I say nothing."
"Then it IS haunted?"
"Well!" cried the landlord, in an outburst of frankness that had the appearance of desperation—"I wouldn't sleep in it."
"Why not?"
"If I wanted to have all the bells in a house ring, with nobody to ring 'em; and all the doors in a house bang, with nobody to bang 'em; and all sorts of feet treading about, with no feet there; why, then," said the landlord, "I'd sleep in that house."
"Is anything seen there?"
The landlord looked at me again, and then, with his former appearance of desperation, called down his stable-yard for "Ikey!"
The call produced a high-shouldered young fellow, with a round red face, a short crop of sandy hair, a very broad humorous mouth, a turned-up nose, and a great sleeved waistcoat of purple bars, with mother-of-pearl buttons, that seemed to be growing upon him, and to be in a fair way—if it were not pruned—of covering his head and overrunning his boots.
"This gentleman wants to know," said the landlord, "if anything's seen at the Poplars."
"'Ooded woman with a howl," said Ikey, in a state of great freshness.
"Do you mean a cry?"
"I mean a bird, sir."
"I seen the howl."
"Never the woman?"
"Not so plain as the howl, but they always keeps together."
"Has anybody ever seen the woman as plainly as the owl?"
"Lord bless you, sir! Lots."
"Who?"
"Lord bless you, sir! Lots."
"The general-dealer opposite, for instance, who is opening his shop?"
"Perkins? Bless you, Perkins wouldn't go a-nigh the place. No!" observed the young man, with considerable feeling; "he an't overwise, an't Perkins, but he an't such a fool as THAT."
(Here, the landlord murmured his confidence in Perkins's knowing better.)
"Who is—or who was—the hooded woman with the owl? Do you know?"
"Well!" said Ikey, holding up his cap with one hand while he scratched his head with the other, "they say, in general, that she was murdered, and the howl he 'ooted the while."
This very concise50 summary of the facts was all I could learn, except that a young man, as hearty51 and likely a young man as ever I see, had been took with fits and held down in 'em, after seeing the hooded woman. Also, that a personage, dimly described as "a hold chap, a sort of one-eyed tramp, answering to the name of Joby, unless you challenged him as Greenwood, and then he said, 'Why not? and even if so, mind your own business,'" had encountered the hooded woman, a matter of five or six times. But, I was not materially assisted by these witnesses: inasmuch as the first was in California, and the last was, as Ikey said (and he was confirmed by the landlord), Anywheres.
Now, although I regard with a hushed and solemn fear, the mysteries, between which and this state of existence is interposed the barrier of the great trial and change that fall on all the things that live; and although I have not the audacity52 to pretend that I know anything of them; I can no more reconcile the mere53 banging of doors, ringing of bells, creaking of boards, and such- like insignificances, with the majestic54 beauty and pervading55 analogy of all the Divine rules that I am permitted to understand, than I had been able, a little while before, to yoke56 the spiritual intercourse of my fellow- traveller to the chariot of the rising sun. Moreover, I had lived in two haunted houses—both abroad. In one of these, an old Italian palace, which bore the reputation of being very badly haunted indeed, and which had recently been twice abandoned on that account, I lived eight months, most tranquilly57 and pleasantly: notwithstanding that the house had a score of mysterious bedrooms, which were never used, and possessed58, in one large room in which I sat reading, times out of number at all hours, and next to which I slept, a haunted chamber59 of the first pretensions60. I gently hinted these considerations to the landlord. And as to this particular house having a bad name, I reasoned with him, Why, how many things had bad names undeservedly, and how easy it was to give bad names, and did he not think that if he and I were persistently61 to whisper in the village that any weird-looking old drunken tinker of the neighborhood had sold himself to the Devil, he would come in time to be suspected of that commercial venture! All this wise talk was perfectly62 ineffective with the landlord, I am bound to confess, and was as dead a failure as ever I made in my life.
To cut this part of the story short, I was piqued63 about the haunted house, and was already half resolved to take it. So, after breakfast, I got the keys from Perkins's brother-in-law (a whip and harness maker64, who keeps the Post Office, and is under submission65 to a most rigorous wife of the Doubly Seceding66 Little Emmanuel persuasion), and went up to the house, attended by my landlord and by Ikey.
Within, I found it, as I had expected, transcendently dismal67. The slowly changing shadows waved on it from the heavy trees, were doleful in the last degree; the house was ill-placed, ill-built, ill-planned, and ill-fitted. It was damp, it was not free from dry rot, there was a flavor of rats in it, and it was the gloomy victim of that indescribable decay which settles on all the work of man's hands whenever it's not turned to man's account. The kitchens and offices were too large, and too remote from each other. Above stairs and below, waste tracts68 of passage intervened between patches of fertility represented by rooms; and there was a mouldy old well with a green growth upon it, hiding like a murderous trap, near the bottom of the back-stairs, under the double row of bells. One of these bells was labelled, on a black ground in faded white letters, MASTER B. This, they told me, was the bell that rang the most.
"Rang the bell," said Ikey.
I was rather struck by the prompt dexterity70 with which this young man pitched his fur cap at the bell, and rang it himself. It was a loud, unpleasant bell, and made a very disagreeable sound. The other bells were inscribed71 according to the names of the rooms to which their wires were conducted: as "Picture Room," "Double Room," "Clock Room," and the like. Following Master B.'s bell to its source I found that young gentleman to have had but indifferent third-class accommodation in a triangular72 cabin under the cock- loft12, with a corner fireplace which Master B. must have been exceedingly small if he were ever able to warm himself at, and a corner chimney-piece like a pyramidal staircase to the ceiling for Tom Thumb. The papering of one side of the room had dropped down bodily, with fragments of plaster adhering to it, and almost blocked up the door. It appeared that Master B., in his spiritual condition, always made a point of pulling the paper down. Neither the landlord nor Ikey could suggest why he made such a fool of himself.
Except that the house had an immensely large rambling73 loft at top, I made no other discoveries. It was moderately well furnished, but sparely. Some of the furniture—say, a third—was as old as the house; the rest was of various periods within the last half- century. I was referred to a corn-chandler in the market-place of the county town to treat for the house. I went that day, and I took it for six months.
It was just the middle of October when I moved in with my maiden74 sister (I venture to call her eight-and-thirty, she is so very handsome, sensible, and engaging). We took with us, a deaf stable- man, my bloodhound Turk, two women servants, and a young person called an Odd Girl. I have reason to record of the attendant last enumerated75, who was one of the Saint Lawrence's union Female Orphans76, that she was a fatal mistake and a disastrous77 engagement.
The year was dying early, the leaves were falling fast, it was a raw cold day when we took possession, and the gloom of the house was most depressing. The cook (an amiable78 woman, but of a weak turn of intellect) burst into tears on beholding79 the kitchen, and requested that her silver watch might be delivered over to her sister (2 Tuppintock's Gardens, Liggs's Walk, Clapham Rise), in the event of anything happening to her from the damp. Streaker80, the housemaid, feigned81 cheerfulness, but was the greater martyr82. The Odd Girl, who had never been in the country, alone was pleased, and made arrangements for sowing an acorn83 in the garden outside the scullery window, and rearing an oak.
We went, before dark, through all the natural—as opposed to supernatural—miseries incidental to our state. Dispiriting reports ascended84 (like the smoke) from the basement in volumes, and descended85 from the upper rooms. There was no rolling-pin, there was no salamander (which failed to surprise me, for I don't know what it is), there was nothing in the house; what there was, was broken, the last people must have lived like pigs, what could the meaning of the landlord be? Through these distresses86, the Odd Girl was cheerful and exemplary. But within four hours after dark we had got into a supernatural groove87, and the Odd Girl had seen "Eyes," and was in hysterics.
My sister and I had agreed to keep the haunting strictly88 to ourselves, and my impression was, and still is, that I had not left Ikey, when he helped to unload the cart, alone with the women, or any one of them, for one minute. Nevertheless, as I say, the Odd Girl had "seen Eyes" (no other explanation could ever be drawn89 from her), before nine, and by ten o'clock had had as much vinegar applied90 to her as would pickle91 a handsome salmon92.
I leave a discerning public to judge of my feelings, when, under these untoward93 circumstances, at about half-past ten o'clock Master B.'s bell began to ring in a most infuriated manner, and Turk howled until the house resounded94 with his lamentations!
I hope I may never again be in a state of mind so unchristian as the mental frame in which I lived for some weeks, respecting the memory of Master B. Whether his bell was rung by rats, or mice, or bats, or wind, or what other accidental vibration95, or sometimes by one cause, sometimes another, and sometimes by collusion, I don't know; but, certain it is, that it did ring two nights out of three, until I conceived the happy idea of twisting Master B.'s neck—in other words, breaking his bell short off—and silencing that young gentleman, as to my experience and belief, for ever.
But, by that time, the Odd Girl had developed such improving powers of catalepsy, that she had become a shining example of that very inconvenient96 disorder97. She would stiffen98, like a Guy Fawkes endowed with unreason, on the most irrelevant99 occasions. I would address the servants in a lucid100 manner, pointing out to them that I had painted Master B.'s room and balked101 the paper, and taken Master B.'s bell away and balked the ringing, and if they could suppose that that confounded boy had lived and died, to clothe himself with no better behavior than would most unquestionably have brought him and the sharpest particles of a birch-broom into close acquaintance in the present imperfect state of existence, could they also suppose a mere poor human being, such as I was, capable by those contemptible102 means of counteracting103 and limiting the powers of the disembodied spirits of the dead, or of any spirits?—I say I would become emphatic104 and cogent105, not to say rather complacent106, in such an address, when it would all go for nothing by reason of the Odd Girl's suddenly stiffening107 from the toes upward, and glaring among us like a parochial petrifaction108.
Streaker, the housemaid, too, had an attribute of a most discomfiting109 nature. I am unable to say whether she was of an usually lymphatic temperament110, or what else was the matter with her, but this young woman became a mere Distillery for the production of the largest and most transparent111 tears I ever met with. Combined with these characteristics, was a peculiar112 tenacity113 of hold in those specimens114, so that they didn't fall, but hung upon her face and nose. In this condition, and mildly and deplorably shaking her head, her silence would throw me more heavily than the Admirable Crichton could have done in a verbal disputation for a purse of money. Cook, likewise, always covered me with confusion as with a garment, by neatly115 winding116 up the session with the protest that the Ouse was wearing her out, and by meekly117 repeating her last wishes regarding her silver watch.
As to our nightly life, the contagion118 of suspicion and fear was among us, and there is no such contagion under the sky. Hooded woman? According to the accounts, we were in a perfect Convent of hooded women. Noises? With that contagion downstairs, I myself have sat in the dismal parlor119, listening, until I have heard so many and such strange noises, that they would have chilled my blood if I had not warmed it by dashing out to make discoveries. Try this in bed, in the dead of the night: try this at your own comfortable fire-side, in the life of the night. You can fill any house with noises, if you will, until you have a noise for every nerve in your nervous system.
I repeat; the contagion of suspicion and fear was among us, and there is no such contagion under the sky. The women (their noses in a chronic120 state of excoriation121 from smelling-salts) were always primed and loaded for a swoon, and ready to go off with hair- triggers. The two elder detached the Odd Girl on all expeditions that were considered doubly hazardous122, and she always established the reputation of such adventures by coming back cataleptic. If Cook or Streaker went overhead after dark, we knew we should presently hear a bump on the ceiling; and this took place so constantly, that it was as if a fighting man were engaged to go about the house, administering a touch of his art which I believe is called The Auctioneer, to every domestic he met with.
It was in vain to do anything. It was in vain to be frightened, for the moment in one's own person, by a real owl, and then to show the owl. It was in vain to discover, by striking an accidental discord123 on the piano, that Turk always howled at particular notes and combinations. It was in vain to be a Rhadamanthus with the bells, and if an unfortunate bell rang without leave, to have it down inexorably and silence it. It was in vain to fire up chimneys, let torches down the well, charge furiously into suspected rooms and recesses124. We changed servants, and it was no better. The new set ran away, and a third set came, and it was no better. At last, our comfortable housekeeping got to be so disorganised and wretched, that I one night dejectedly said to my sister: "Patty, I begin to despair of our getting people to go on with us here, and I think we must give this up."
My sister, who is a woman of immense spirit, replied, "No, John, don't give it up. Don't be beaten, John. There is another way."
"And what is that?" said I.
"John," returned my sister, "if we are not to be driven out of this house, and that for no reason whatever, that is apparent to you or me, we must help ourselves and take the house wholly and solely125 into our own hands."
"But, the servants," said I.
"Have no servants," said my sister, boldly.
Like most people in my grade of life, I had never thought of the possibility of going on without those faithful obstructions126. The notion was so new to me when suggested, that I looked very doubtful.
"We know they come here to be frightened and infect one another, and we know they are frightened and do infect one another," said my sister.
"With the exception of Bottles," I observed, in a meditative127 tone.
(The deaf stable-man. I kept him in my service, and still keep him, as a phenomenon of moroseness128 not to be matched in England.)
"To be sure, John," assented129 my sister; "except Bottles. And what does that go to prove? Bottles talks to nobody, and hears nobody unless he is absolutely roared at, and what alarm has Bottles ever given, or taken? None."
This was perfectly true; the individual in question having retired130, every night at ten o'clock, to his bed over the coach-house, with no other company than a pitchfork and a pail of water. That the pail of water would have been over me, and the pitchfork through me, if I had put myself without announcement in Bottles's way after that minute, I had deposited in my own mind as a fact worth remembering. Neither had Bottles ever taken the least notice of any of our many uproars131. An imperturbable132 and speechless man, he had sat at his supper, with Streaker present in a swoon, and the Odd Girl marble, and had only put another potato in his cheek, or profited by the general misery133 to help himself to beefsteak pie.
"And so," continued my sister, "I exempt134 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 ardor135.
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 confided136, that there was still a week of the month unexpired, when our party all came down together merrily, and mustered137 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 kennel138 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 casually139 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 favor of his stepping up to the house and looking at mine.
"SHE'S a true one, sir," said Ikey, after inspecting a double- barrelled 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 injustice140. 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 monstrously141 and wilfully142, 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 preposterous143 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 watchful144 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 allotted145 the various household duties, as if we had been on a gipsy party, or a yachting party, or a hunting party, or were shipwrecked. I then recounted the floating rumors146 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 gender147 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 remarkable149 provocation150 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 astronomer151: 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 could have left her endearing and bright face behind. They drew the Clock Room. Alfred Starling, an uncommonly152 agreeable young fellow of eight-and- twenty for whom I have the greatest liking153, was in the Double Room; mine, usually, and designated by that name from having a dressing- room within it, with two large and cumbersome154 windows, which no wedges I was ever able to make, would keep from shaking, in any weather, wind or no wind. Alfred is a young fellow who pretends to be "fast" (another word for loose, as I understand the term), but who is much too good and sensible for that nonsense, and who would have distinguished155 himself before now, if his father had not unfortunately left him a small independence of two hundred a year, on the strength of which his only occupation in life has been to spend six. I am in hopes, however, that his Banker may break, or that he may enter into some speculation156 guaranteed to pay twenty per cent.; for, I am convinced that if he could only be ruined, his fortune is made. Belinda Bates, bosom157 friend of my sister, and a most intellectual, amiable, and delightful158 girl, got the Picture Room. She has a fine genius for poetry, combined with real business earnestness, and "goes in"—to use an expression of Alfred's—for Woman's mission, Woman's rights, Woman's wrongs, and everything that is woman's with a capital W, or is not and ought to be, or is and ought not to be. "Most praiseworthy, my dear, and Heaven prosper159 you!" I whispered to her on the first night of my taking leave of her at the Picture-Room door, "but don't overdo160 it. And in respect of the great necessity there is, my darling, for more employments being within the reach of Woman than our civilisation161 has as yet assigned to her, don't fly at the unfortunate men, even those men who are at first sight in your way, as if they were the natural oppressors of your sex; for, trust me, Belinda, they do sometimes spend their wages among wives and daughters, sisters, mothers, aunts, and grandmothers; and the play is, really, not ALL Wolf and Red Riding-Hood, but has other parts in it." However, I digress.
Belinda, as I have mentioned, occupied the Picture Room. We had but three other chambers162: the Corner Room, the Cupboard Room, and the Garden Room. My old friend, Jack148 Governor, "slung163 his hammock," as he called it, in the Corner Room. I have always regarded Jack as the finest-looking sailor that ever sailed. He is gray now, but as handsome as he was a quarter of a century ago— nay164, handsomer. A portly, cheery, well-built figure of a broad- shouldered man, with a frank smile, a brilliant dark eye, and a rich dark eyebrow165. I remember those under darker hair, and they look all the better for their silver setting. He has been wherever his union namesake flies, has Jack, and I have met old shipmates of his, away in the Mediterranean166 and on the other side of the Atlantic, who have beamed and brightened at the casual mention of his name, and have cried, "You know Jack Governor? Then you know a prince of men!" That he is! And so unmistakably a naval167 officer, that if you were to meet him coming out of an Esquimaux snow-hut in seal's skin, you would be vaguely168 persuaded he was in full naval uniform.
Jack once had that bright clear eye of his on my sister; but, it fell out that he married another lady and took her to South America, where she died. This was a dozen years ago or more. He brought down with him to our haunted house a little cask of salt beef; for, he is always convinced that all salt beef not of his own pickling, is mere carrion169, and invariably, when he goes to London, packs a piece in his portmanteau. He had also volunteered to bring with him one "Nat Beaver170," an old comrade of his, captain of a merchantman. Mr. Beaver, with a thick-set wooden face and figure, and apparently171 as hard as a block all over, proved to be an intelligent man, with a world of watery172 experiences in him, and great practical knowledge. At times, there was a curious nervousness about him, apparently the lingering result of some old illness; but, it seldom lasted many minutes. He got the Cupboard Room, and lay there next to Mr. Undery, my friend and solicitor173: who came down, in an amateur capacity, "to go through with it," as he said, and who plays whist better than the whole Law List, from the red cover at the beginning to the red cover at the end.
I never was happier in my life, and I believe it was the universal feeling among us. Jack Governor, always a man of wonderful resources, was Chief Cook, and made some of the best dishes I ever ate, including unapproachable curries174. My sister was pastry175 cook and confectioner. Starling and I were Cook's Mate, turn and turn about, and on special occasions the chief cook "pressed" Mr. Beaver. We had a great deal of outdoor sport and exercise, but nothing was neglected within, and there was no ill-humor or misunderstanding among us, and our evenings were so delightful that we had at least one good reason for being reluctant to go to bed.
We had a few night alarms in the beginning. On the first night, I was knocked up by Jack with a most wonderful ship's lantern in his hand, like the gills of some monster of the deep, who informed me that he "was going aloft to the main truck," to have the weathercock down. It was a stormy night and I remonstrated176; but Jack called my attention to its making a sound like a cry of despair, and said somebody would be "hailing a ghost" presently, if it wasn't done. So, up to the top of the house, where I could hardly stand for the wind, we went, accompanied by Mr. Beaver; and there Jack, lantern and all, with Mr. Beaver after him, swarmed177 up to the top of a cupola, some two dozen feet above the chimneys, and stood upon nothing particular, coolly knocking the weathercock off, until they both got into such good spirits with the wind and the height, that I thought they would never come down. Another night, they turned out again, and had a chimney-cowl off. Another night, they cut a sobbing178 and gulping179 water-pipe away. Another night, they found out something else. On several occasions, they both, in the coolest manner, simultaneously180 dropped out of their respective bedroom windows, hand over hand by their counterpanes, to "overhaul181" something mysterious in the garden.
The engagement among us was faithfully kept, and nobody revealed anything. All we knew was, if any one's room were haunted, no one looked the worse for it.
The foregoing story is particularly interesting as illustrating182 the leaning of Dickens's mind toward the spiritualistic and mystical fancies current in his time, and the counterbalance of his common sense and fun.
"He probably never made up his own mind," Mr. Andrew Lang declares in a discussion of this Haunted House story. Mr. Lang says he once took part in a similar quest, and "can recognize the accuracy of most of Dickens's remarks. Indeed, even to persons not on the level of the Odd Girl in education, the temptation to produce 'phenomena' for fun is all but overwhelming. That people communicate hallucinations to each other 'in some diseased way without words,' is a modern theory perhaps first formulated183 here by Dickens."
"The Signal Man's Story," which follows, is likewise, Mr. Lang believes, "probably based on some real story of the kind, some anecdote184 of premonitions. There are scores in the records of the Society for Psychical185 Research."—The Editor.
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1
accredited
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| adj.可接受的；可信任的；公认的；质量合格的v.相信( accredit的过去式和过去分词 )；委托；委任；把…归结于 | |
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smoothly
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| adv.平滑地，顺利地，流利地，流畅地 | |
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utterly
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| adv.完全地，绝对地 | |
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lighting
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| n.照明，光线的明暗，舞台灯光 | |
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wager
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| n.赌注；vt.押注，打赌 | |
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unreasonable
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| adj.不讲道理的，不合情理的，过度的 | |
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aggravating
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| adj.恼人的，讨厌的 | |
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jolts
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| （使）摇动， （使）震惊( jolt的名词复数 ) | |
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perplexed
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| adj.不知所措的 | |
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demeanor
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| n.行为；风度 | |
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unbearable
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| adj.不能容忍的；忍受不住的 | |
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loft
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| n.阁楼，顶楼 | |
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compassion
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| n.同情，怜悯 | |
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insignificance
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| n.不重要；无价值；无意义 | |
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enunciated
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| v.（清晰地）发音( enunciate的过去式和过去分词 )；确切地说明 | |
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vowel
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| n.元音；元音字母 | |
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noted
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| adj.著名的，知名的 | |
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sect
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| n.派别，宗教，学派，派系 | |
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intercourse
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| n.性交；交流，交往，交际 | |
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corrupt
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| v.贿赂，收买；adj.腐败的，贪污的 | |
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phenomena
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| n.现象 | |
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bishop
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| n.主教，（国际象棋）象 | |
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orthography
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| n.拼字法，拼字式 | |
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wilful
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| adj.任性的，故意的 | |
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repudiated
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| v.（正式地）否认( repudiate的过去式和过去分词 )；拒绝接受；拒绝与…往来；拒不履行（法律义务） | |
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joint
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| adj.联合的，共同的；n.关节，接合处；v.连接，贴合 | |
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velvet
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| n.丝绒，天鹅绒；adj.丝绒制的，柔软的 | |
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mightily
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| ad.强烈地；非常地 | |
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29
vapors
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| n.水汽，水蒸气，无实质之物( vapor的名词复数 )；自夸者；幻想 [药]吸入剂 [古]忧郁（症）v.自夸，（使）蒸发( vapor的第三人称单数 ) | |
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harmonious
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| adj.和睦的，调和的，和谐的，协调的 | |
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attentively
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| adv.聚精会神地；周到地；谛；凝神 | |
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solitary
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| adj.孤独的，独立的，荒凉的；n.隐士 | |
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standing
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| n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的 | |
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drooped
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| 弯曲或下垂，发蔫( droop的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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melancholy
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| n.忧郁，愁思；adj.令人感伤（沮丧）的，忧郁的 | |
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shunned
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| v.避开，回避，避免( shun的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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spire
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| n.(教堂)尖顶，尖塔，高点 | |
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solitude
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| n. 孤独; 独居,荒僻之地,幽静的地方 | |
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owl
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| n.猫头鹰，枭 | |
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deserted
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| adj.荒芜的，荒废的，无人的，被遗弃的 | |
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tranquillity
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| n. 平静, 安静 | |
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42
maturity
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| n.成熟；完成；(支票、债券等)到期 | |
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43
apparition
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| n.幽灵，神奇的现象 | |
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slumbering
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| 微睡，睡眠（slumber的现在分词形式） | |
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45
spoke
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| n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说 | |
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46
briefly
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| adv.简单地，简短地 | |
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bespoke
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| adj.（产品）订做的；专做订货的v.预定( bespeak的过去式 )；订（货）；证明；预先请求 | |
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48
broached
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| v.谈起( broach的过去式和过去分词 )；打开并开始用；用凿子扩大（或修光）；（在桶上）钻孔取液体 | |
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49
hooded
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| adj.戴头巾的；有罩盖的；颈部因肋骨运动而膨胀的 | |
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50
concise
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| adj.简洁的，简明的 | |
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51
hearty
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| adj.热情友好的；衷心的；尽情的，纵情的 | |
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52
audacity
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| n.大胆，卤莽，无礼 | |
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53
mere
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| adj.纯粹的；仅仅，只不过 | |
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54
majestic
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| adj.雄伟的，壮丽的，庄严的，威严的，崇高的 | |
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55
pervading
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| v.遍及，弥漫( pervade的现在分词 ) | |
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56
yoke
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| n.轭；支配；v.给...上轭，连接，使成配偶 | |
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57
tranquilly
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| adv. 宁静地 | |
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58
possessed
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| adj.疯狂的；拥有的，占有的 | |
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59
chamber
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| n.房间，寝室；会议厅；议院；会所 | |
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60
pretensions
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| 自称( pretension的名词复数 )； 自命不凡； 要求； 权力 | |
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61
persistently
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| ad.坚持地；固执地 | |
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62
perfectly
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| adv.完美地，无可非议地，彻底地 | |
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63
piqued
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| v.伤害…的自尊心( pique的过去式和过去分词 )；激起（好奇心） | |
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64
maker
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| n.制造者，制造商 | |
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65
submission
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| n.服从，投降；温顺，谦虚；提出 | |
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66
seceding
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| v.脱离，退出( secede的现在分词 ) | |
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67
dismal
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| adj.阴沉的，凄凉的，令人忧郁的，差劲的 | |
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68
tracts
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| 大片土地( tract的名词复数 )； 地带； （体内的）道； （尤指宣扬宗教、伦理或政治的）短文 | |
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69
hooted
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| （使）作汽笛声响，作汽车喇叭声( hoot的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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70
dexterity
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| n.(手的)灵巧，灵活 | |
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71
inscribed
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| v.写，刻( inscribe的过去式和过去分词 )；内接 | |
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72
triangular
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| adj.三角（形）的，三者间的 | |
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73
rambling
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| adj.[建]凌乱的，杂乱的 | |
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74
maiden
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| n.少女，处女；adj.未婚的，纯洁的，无经验的 | |
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enumerated
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| v.列举，枚举，数( enumerate的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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76
orphans
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| 孤儿( orphan的名词复数 ) | |
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77
disastrous
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| adj.灾难性的，造成灾害的；极坏的，很糟的 | |
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amiable
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| adj.和蔼可亲的，友善的，亲切的 | |
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79
beholding
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| v.看，注视( behold的现在分词 )；瞧；看呀；（叙述中用于引出某人意外的出现）哎哟 | |
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80
streaker
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| n.(1970年代出现的)裸跑者 | |
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81
feigned
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| a.假装的，不真诚的 | |
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82
martyr
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| n.烈士，殉难者；vt.杀害，折磨，牺牲 | |
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83
acorn
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| n.橡实，橡子 | |
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84
ascended
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| v.上升，攀登( ascend的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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85
descended
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| a.为...后裔的，出身于...的 | |
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86
distresses
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| n.悲痛( distress的名词复数 )；痛苦；贫困；危险 | |
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87
groove
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| n.沟，槽；凹线，（刻出的）线条，习惯 | |
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88
strictly
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| adv.严厉地，严格地；严密地 | |
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89
drawn
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| v.拖，拉，拔出；adj.憔悴的，紧张的 | |
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90
applied
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| adj.应用的；v.应用，适用 | |
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91
pickle
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| n.腌汁，泡菜；v.腌，泡 | |
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92
salmon
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| n.鲑，大马哈鱼，橙红色的 | |
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93
untoward
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| adj.不利的，不幸的，困难重重的 | |
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94
resounded
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| v.（指声音等）回荡于某处( resound的过去式和过去分词 )；产生回响；（指某处）回荡着声音 | |
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95
vibration
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| n.颤动，振动；摆动 | |
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inconvenient
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| adj.不方便的，令人感到麻烦的 | |
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97
disorder
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| n.紊乱，混乱；骚动，骚乱；疾病，失调 | |
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98
stiffen
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| v.(使)硬，(使)变挺，(使)变僵硬 | |
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99
irrelevant
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| adj.不恰当的，无关系的，不相干的 | |
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100
lucid
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| adj.明白易懂的，清晰的，头脑清楚的 | |
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101
balked
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| v.畏缩不前，犹豫( balk的过去式和过去分词 )；（指马）不肯跑 | |
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102
contemptible
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| adj.可鄙的，可轻视的，卑劣的 | |
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103
counteracting
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| 对抗，抵消( counteract的现在分词 ) | |
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104
emphatic
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| adj.强调的，着重的；无可置疑的，明显的 | |
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105
cogent
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| adj.强有力的，有说服力的 | |
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106
complacent
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| adj.自满的；自鸣得意的 | |
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107
stiffening
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| n. (使衣服等)变硬的材料, 硬化 动词stiffen的现在分词形式 | |
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108
petrifaction
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| n.石化，化石；吓呆；惊呆 | |
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109
discomfiting
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| v.使为难( discomfit的现在分词 )；使狼狈；使挫折；挫败 | |
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110
temperament
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| n.气质，性格，性情 | |
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111
transparent
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| adj.明显的，无疑的；透明的 | |
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112
peculiar
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| adj.古怪的，异常的；特殊的，特有的 | |
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113
tenacity
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| n.坚韧 | |
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114
specimens
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| n.样品( specimen的名词复数 )；范例；（化验的）抽样；某种类型的人 | |
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115
neatly
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| adv.整洁地，干净地，灵巧地，熟练地 | |
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116
winding
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| n.绕，缠，绕组，线圈 | |
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117
meekly
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| adv.温顺地，逆来顺受地 | |
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118
contagion
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| n.(通过接触的疾病)传染；蔓延 | |
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119
parlor
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| n.店铺，营业室；会客室，客厅 | |
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120
chronic
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| adj.(疾病)长期未愈的，慢性的；极坏的 | |
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121
excoriation
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| n.严厉的责难；苛责；表皮脱落；抓痕 | |
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122
hazardous
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| adj.(有)危险的，冒险的；碰运气的 | |
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123
discord
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| n.不和，意见不合，争论，（音乐）不和谐 | |
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124
recesses
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| n.壁凹( recess的名词复数 )；（工作或业务活动的）中止或暂停期间；学校的课间休息；某物内部的凹形空间v.把某物放在墙壁的凹处( recess的第三人称单数 )；将（墙）做成凹形，在（墙）上做壁龛；休息，休会，休庭 | |
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125
solely
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| adv.仅仅，唯一地 | |
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126
obstructions
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| n.障碍物( obstruction的名词复数 )；阻碍物；阻碍；阻挠 | |
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127
meditative
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| adj.沉思的，冥想的 | |
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128
moroseness
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129
assented
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| 同意，赞成( assent的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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130
retired
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| adj.隐退的，退休的，退役的 | |
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131
uproars
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| 吵闹，喧嚣，骚乱( uproar的名词复数 ) | |
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132
imperturbable
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| adj.镇静的 | |
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133
misery
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| n.痛苦，苦恼，苦难；悲惨的境遇，贫苦 | |
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134
exempt
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| adj.免除的；v.使免除；n.免税者，被免除义务者 | |
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135
ardor
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| n.热情，狂热 | |
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136
confided
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| v.吐露（秘密，心事等）( confide的过去式和过去分词 )；（向某人）吐露（隐私、秘密等） | |
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137
mustered
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| v.集合，召集，集结（尤指部队）( muster的过去式和过去分词 )；（自他人处）搜集某事物；聚集；激发 | |
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138
kennel
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| n.狗舍，狗窝 | |
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139
casually
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| adv.漠不关心地，无动于衷地，不负责任地 | |
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140
injustice
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| n.非正义，不公正，不公平，侵犯（别人的）权利 | |
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141
monstrously
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142
wilfully
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| adv.任性固执地；蓄意地 | |
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143
preposterous
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| adj.荒谬的，可笑的 | |
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144
watchful
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| adj.注意的，警惕的 | |
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145
allotted
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| 分配，拨给，摊派( allot的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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146
rumors
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| n.传闻( rumor的名词复数 )；[古]名誉；咕哝；[古]喧嚷v.传闻( rumor的第三人称单数 )；[古]名誉；咕哝；[古]喧嚷 | |
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147
gender
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| n.（生理上的）性，（名词、代词等的）性 | |
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148
jack
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| n.插座，千斤顶，男人；v.抬起，提醒，扛举；n.（Jake）杰克 | |
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149
remarkable
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| adj.显著的，异常的，非凡的，值得注意的 | |
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150
provocation
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| n.激怒，刺激，挑拨，挑衅的事物，激怒的原因 | |
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151
astronomer
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| n.天文学家 | |
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152
uncommonly
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| adv. 稀罕(极，非常) | |
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153
liking
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| n.爱好；嗜好；喜欢 | |
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154
cumbersome
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| adj.笨重的，不便携带的 | |
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155
distinguished
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| adj.卓越的，杰出的，著名的 | |
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156
speculation
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| n.思索，沉思；猜测；投机 | |
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157
bosom
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| n.胸，胸部；胸怀；内心；adj.亲密的 | |
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158
delightful
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| adj.令人高兴的，使人快乐的 | |
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159
prosper
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| v.成功，兴隆，昌盛；使成功，使昌隆，繁荣 | |
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160
overdo
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| vt.把...做得过头，演得过火 | |
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161
civilisation
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| n.文明，文化，开化，教化 | |
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162
chambers
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| n.房间( chamber的名词复数 )；（议会的）议院；卧室；会议厅 | |
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163
slung
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| 抛( sling的过去式和过去分词 )； 吊挂； 遣送； 押往 | |
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164
nay
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| adv.不；n.反对票，投反对票者 | |
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165
eyebrow
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| n.眉毛，眉 | |
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166
Mediterranean
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| adj.地中海的；地中海沿岸的 | |
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167
naval
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| adj.海军的，军舰的，船的 | |
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168
vaguely
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| adv.含糊地，暖昧地 | |
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169
carrion
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| n.腐肉 | |
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170
beaver
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| n.海狸，河狸 | |
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171
apparently
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| adv.显然地；表面上，似乎 | |
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172
watery
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| adj.有水的，水汪汪的；湿的，湿润的 | |
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173
solicitor
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| n.初级律师，事务律师 | |
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174
curries
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| n.咖喱食品( curry的名词复数 ) | |
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175
pastry
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| n.油酥面团，酥皮糕点 | |
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176
remonstrated
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| v.抗议( remonstrate的过去式和过去分词 )；告诫 | |
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177
swarmed
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| 密集( swarm的过去式和过去分词 )； 云集； 成群地移动； 蜜蜂或其他飞行昆虫成群地飞来飞去 | |
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178
sobbing
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| <主方>Ⅰ adj.湿透的 | |
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179
gulping
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| v.狼吞虎咽地吃，吞咽( gulp的现在分词 )；大口地吸（气）；哽住 | |
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180
simultaneously
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| adv.同时发生地，同时进行地 | |
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181
overhaul
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| v./n.大修，仔细检查 | |
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182
illustrating
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| 给…加插图( illustrate的现在分词 )； 说明； 表明； （用示例、图画等）说明 | |
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183
formulated
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| v.构想出( formulate的过去式和过去分词 )；规划；确切地阐述；用公式表示 | |
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184
anecdote
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| n.轶事，趣闻，短故事 | |
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185
psychical
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| adj.有关特异功能现象的；有关特异功能官能的；灵魂的；心灵的 | |
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