st of the singular incidents with which this girl is
connected occurred, the date being about a year after her arrival at the
village. The preceding winter had been remarkably severe, the snow
drifting to a great depth, and the frost continuing for an unexampled
period, and the summer following was as noteworthy for its extreme heat.
On one of the very hottest days in this summer, Helen V. left the
farmhouse for one of her long rambles in the forest, taking with her, as
usual, some bread and meat for lunch. She was seen by some men in the
fields making for the old Roman Road, a green causeway which traverses
the highest part of the wood, and they were astonished to observe that
the girl had taken off her hat, though the heat of the sun was already
almost tropical. As it happened, a labourer, Joseph W. by name, was
working in the forest near the Roman Road, and at twelve o'clock his
little son, Trevor, brought the man his dinner of bread and cheese.
After the meal, the boy, who was about seven years old at the time, left
his father at work, and, as he said, went to look for flowers in the
wood, and the man, who could hear him shouting with delight over his
discoveries, felt no uneasiness. Suddenly, however, he was horrified at
hearing the most dreadful screams, evidently the result of great terror,
proceeding from the direction in which his son had gone, and he hastily
threw down his tools and ran to see what had happened. Tracing his path
by the sound, he met the little boy, who was running headlong, and was
evidently terribly frightened, and on questioning him the man at last
elicited that after picking a posy of flowers he felt tired, and lay
down on the grass and fell asleep. He was suddenly awakened, as he
stated, by a peculiar noise, a sort of singing he called it, and on
peeping through the branches he saw Helen V. playing on the grass with a
'strange naked man,' whom he seemed unable to describe more fully. He
said he felt dreadfully frightened, and ran away crying for his father.
Joseph W. proceeded in the direction indicated by his son, and found
Helen V. sitting on the grass in the middle of a glade or open space
left by charcoal burners. He angrily charged her with frightening his
little boy, but she entirely denied the accusation and laughed at the
child's story of a 'strange man,' to which he himself did not attach
much credence. Joseph W. came to the conclusion that the boy had woke up
with a sudden fright,