A Boyhood in Scotland 



their way to avoid passing through or near a 

 graveyard in the dark. After being instructed 

 by the servants in the nature, looks, and habits 

 of the various black and white ghosts, boowuz- 

 zies, and witches we often speculated as to 

 whether they could run fast, and tried to be- 

 lieve that we had a good chance to get away 

 from most of them. To improve our speed and 

 wind, we often took long runs into the country. 

 Tam o' Shanter's mare outran a lot of witches, 

 — at least until she reached a place of safety 

 beyond the keystone of the bridge, — and we 

 thought perhaps we also might be able to out- 

 run them. 



Our house formerly belonged to a physician, 

 and a servant girl told us that the ghost of the 

 dead doctor haunted one of the unoccupied 

 rooms in the second story that was kept dark 

 on account of a heavy window-tax. Our bed- 

 room was adjacent to the ghost room, which 

 had in it a lot of chemical apparatus, — glass 

 tubing, glass and brass retorts, test-tubes, 

 flasks, etc., — and we thought that those 

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