My Library

spoken words, ‘Be patient! TRY!’ “It is impossible to attribute all these things to imagination. “One evening, a long time after the occurrence just related, a company of ladies and gentlemen, in a house situated near the observatory, Portland, Maine, were conversing upon the general subject of ghosts, and rewards and punishments after death. When we sat down there were thirteen persons in the room, and thirteen persons only. We became deeply absorbed in the discussion, indeed so much so, that the host gave the servant strict orders not to disturb us, and to refuse admission to any person whatever. And thus we all talked freely, the servant seated in the hall, close by the door. No one was admitted. Presently one person, by reason of his eloquence and venerable appearance, engrossed all our attention by the thrilling things he told, although he did not join the conversation till over an hour after we had begun it; nor did his conversation appear at all intrusive. He was the fourteenth person, although we did not realize the fact till we were separating, and he had disappeared. Upon inquiry no one knew him, had ever seen him before, or observed his departure—not even the servant, who declared that for two hours no one had passed him either way. It was voted ‘very strange,’ and that for our own credit sake the matter should be ‘hushed up;’ but we agreed to