"
A PIPE OF MYSTERY
A jovial party were gathered round a blazing fire in an old grange
near Warwick. The hour was getting late; the very little ones had,
after dancing round the Christmas tree, enjoying the snapdragon,
and playing a variety of games, gone off to bed; and the elder
boys and girls now gathered round their uncle, Colonel Harley, and
asked him for a story--above all, a ghost story.
"But I have never seen any ghosts," the colonel said, laughing;
"and, moreover, I don't believe in them one bit. I have traveled
pretty well all over the world, I have slept in houses said to be
haunted, but nothing have I seen--no noises that could not be
accounted for by rats or the wind have I ever heard. I have never
"--and here he paused--"never but once met with any circumstances
or occurrence that could not be accounted for by the light of
reason, and I know you prefer hearing stories of my own adventures
to mere invention."
"Yes, uncle. But what was the 'once' when circumstances happened
that you could not explain?"
"It's rather a long story," the colonel said, "and it's getting
late."
"Oh! no, no, uncle; it does not matter a bit how late we sit up
on Christmas Eve, and the longer the story is, the better; and if
you don't believe in ghosts how can it be a story of something you
could not account for by the light of nature?"
"You will see when I have done," the colonel said.
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