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earthquake under the bed. Collecting my scattered wits, I tried to go to sleep again; but alas! that fatal feast had destroyed sleep, and I vainly tried to quiet my wakeful senses with the rustle of leaves about the window and the breaking waves upon the beach. In one of the pauses between the sounds of the waves, I heard a curious noise in the house--a sort of moan, coming at regular intervals. And, as I sat up to make out where it was, another sound caught my attentive ear. Drip, drip, drip, went something out in the hall, and in an instant the tale told me on Sunset Hill came back with unpleasant reality. "Nonsense! It is raining, and the roof leaks," I said to myself, while an unpleasant thrill went through me, and fancy, aided by indigestion, began to people the house with ghostly inmates. No rain had fallen for weeks, and peeping through my curtain, I saw the big, bright stars shining in a cloudless sky; so that explanation failed, and still the drip, drip, drip went on. Likewise the moaning--so distinctly now that it was clear that the little back bed-room was next the chamber in which I was quaking at that very moment. "Some one is sleeping there," I said, and then remembered that all the rooms were locked, and all the keys but mine in Mrs. Grant's pocket, up at the house. "Well, let the ghosts enjoy themselves; I won't disturb them if they let me alone. Some of the ladies thought me brave to dare to sleep here, and it never will do to own I was scared by a foolish story and an odd sound." So down I lay, and said the multiplication table with great determination for several minutes, trying to turn a deaf ear to the outside world and check my unruly thoughts. But it was a failure; and when I found myself saying over and over "Four times twelve is twenty-four," I gave up affecting courage, and went in for a good, honest scare. As a cheerful subject for midnight consideration, I kept thinking of B. Tucker, in spite of every effort to give it up. In vain I remembered the fact that the departed gentleman was "always polite to ladies." I still was in great fear lest he might think it necessary to come and apologize in person for "bothering" me. Presently a clock struck three, and I gave a moan that beat the ghost's all hollow, so full of deep suffering was I at the thought of several hours of weary waiting. I was not sure at what time the daylight would appear, and I was bitterly sorry
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