Angela dropped her
tea-cup and dashed out of the room, forgetting that there was no light
in the rooms above us.
"I caught up a candle and followed her quickly. We found the children
sobbing wildly. Jack's arms were almost strangling his mother, while he
cried in great excitement, 'Oh, the old woman in the black bonnet! The
old woman in the black bonnet! Oh--oh--oh!'
"I thought a little fatherly correction would be beneficial, but Angela
would not suffer me to interfere. She tried to soothe the little
beggars, and in a few minutes they were coherent enough in their story.
A frightful old woman, wearing a black bonnet, had been in the room. She
came close to them and bent over their cribs, with her dreadful face
near to theirs.
"'How did you see her?' we asked. 'There was no candle here."
"She had light about her, they said; at any rate, they saw her quite
well. An exhaustive search was made. No trace of a human being was to be
found. I refrained from speaking to the other children, who slept in an
upper story, though I softly entered their rooms and examined presses
and wardrobes, and peeped behind dark corners, laughing in my sleeve all
the while.
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