A GHOST. y 



servants, or a friend of theirs, up long beyond the 

 usual hour of my mother's house for rest. So I 

 locked the kitchen door behind us, put the key in 

 my pocket, and exclaimed, " Come along, we will 

 see who she is !" By the old fire-place stood the 

 great kitchen screen, towards which she seemed so 

 noiselessly to glide, and thither my brother and 

 myself proceeded, dashing round either corner of it, 

 expecting to catch her ; but when we did so we met 

 face to face, and not the vestige of a woman to be 

 seen. Speechless with astonishment as to where 

 she could be gone, we searched every nook and 

 corner, but there was no one in the kitchen but our- 

 selves ; our wonder still more increased when, on going 

 out by the door into the scullery, we found that 

 locked fast, and tlie key on the inside. The windows 

 were too high, as well as fast, to admit of an escape 

 by such means ; and believe it or not, as you like, 

 reader, whatever it was that had been seen by us 

 had vanished. The apparition personated no one 

 that I know, and why it appeared to us is a 

 mystery, for neither treasure was indicated, nor 

 warnings given ; so what business the ghost was on, 

 if ghost it was, remains a secret to this day. 



My reminiscences of other matters must not carry 

 me away from the canine species, which is my prin- 

 cipal theme ; and therefore to return to Grumbo. It 

 is a favourite maxim of mine, that nothing takes its 

 character from its preceptor so much as a hound or a 

 dog does from his huntsman : of this Grumbo formed 

 no bad illustration. Not only was he my constant 

 guard and companion, but when my godfather, the 

 late Lord Grantley, gave me my first gun, made by 

 " Ronolds," he became my pointer, spaniel, and re- 



