HUGH MILLER. 105 



his Peterhead letter — a brief but hopeful missive — had been 

 just received; and my mother was sitting, on the evening 

 after, beside the household fire, plying the cheerful needle, 

 when the house door, which had been left unfastened, fell 

 open, and I was despatched from her side to shut it. What 

 follows must be regarded as simply the recollection, though a 

 very vivid one, of a boy who had completed his fifth year only 

 a month before. Day had not wholly disappeared, but it was 

 fast posting on to night, and a grey haze spread a neutral tint 

 of dimness over every more distant object, but left the nearer 

 ones comparatively distinct, when I saw at the open door, 

 within less than a yard of my breast, as plainly as ever I saw 

 anything, a dissevered hand and arm stretched towards me. 

 Hand and arm were apparently those of a female : they bore a 

 livid and sodden appearance ; and directly fronting me, where 

 the body ought to have been, there was only blank, trans- 

 parent space, through which I could see the dim forms of the 

 objects beyond. I was fearfully startled, and ran shrieking to 

 my mother, telling what I had seen ; and the house girl whom 

 she next sent to shut the door, apparently affected by my 

 terror, also returned frightened, and said that she too had seen 

 the woman's hand ; which, however, did not seem to be the 

 case. And finally, ray mother going to the door, saw nothing, 

 though she appeared much impressed by the extremeness of 

 my terror and the minuteness of my description. I com- 

 municate the story, as it lies fixed in my memory, without 

 attempting to explain it. The supposed apparition may have 

 been merely a momentary affection of the eye, of the nature 

 described by Sir Walter Scott in his Demo7iology, and Sir 

 David Brewster in his Natural Magic. But if so, the affection 

 was one of which I experienced no after return; and its 



