sessed his imagination in all its true colours of dread and horror.
Again and again he repeated his efforts; and, again and again, threw
away the loathsome contents of the glass.

Had the story stopped here, what would not superstition have made of it?
But the philosopher, who was still pumping, now found the water grew
paler; and, at last, pure water filled the vessel. Overjoyed at this
observation, he threw the limpid stream in the face of the mistress,
whose recovery was assisted by the appearance of her husband and Betty.

The mystery, when explained, turned out to be simply this--The good
housewife, when she knew that a docket had been struck against her
husband, had taken care to conceal some of her choice cherry brandy,
from the rapacious gripe of the messenger to the Commissioners of
Bankrupts, on some shelves in a closet up stairs, which also contained,
agreeably to the ancient architecture of the building, the trunk of the
pump below; and, in trying to move the jars, to get at a drop for the
party at the kitchen fire, the shelf gave way with a tremendous crash;
the jars were broken into an hundred pieces; the rich juice descended in
torrents down the trunk of the pump, and filled, with its ruby current,
the sucker beneath; and this was the self-same fluid which the
philosopher, in his fright, had so madly thrown away. The wife had
swooned at the accident; the husband, in his haste, had fallen on his
nose, which ran with blood; and the maid's legs, in her hurry, coming in
contact with her fallen master's ribs, she, like "vaulting ambition,"
overleaped herself, and fell on the other side.

Often has this story been told, by one who knew the philosopher, with
great effect, till the last act, or _denouement_; when disappointment
was mostly visible in the looks of his auditors, at finding there was
actually nothing supernatural in the affair, and no ghost.

THE

APPARITION INVESTIGATED.

In a village in one of the midland counties of Scotland, lived a widow,
distinguished among her neighbours for decency of manners, integrity,
and respect for religion. She affirmed that, for several nights
together, she had heard a supernatural voice exclaiming aloud, _Murder!
Murder!_ This was immediately reported through the neighbourhood: all
were alarmed, and looked around them with solicitude for the detection
of the murder which they supposed to have been committed; and it was
not long till a discovery seemed ac