The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Ghost, by William. D. O'Connor

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Title: The Ghost

Author: William. D. O'Connor

Illustrator: Thomas Nast

Release Date: October 5, 2008 [EBook #26779]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

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The Ghost.

BY WM. D. O'CONNOR.

WITH TWO ILLUSTRATIONS BY THOS. NAST.

NEW YORK:
G. P. PUTNAM & SON, 661 BROADWAY.
LONDON: SAMPSON LOW & CO.
1867.

THE NEW YORK PRINTING COMPANY,
_81, 83, and 85 Centre Street_,
NEW YORK.

The Ghost.

A CHRISTMAS STORY.

At the West End of Boston is a quarter of some fifty streets, more or
less, commonly known as Beacon Hill.

It is a rich and respectable quarter, sacred to the abodes of Our First
Citizens. The very houses have become sentient of its prevailing
character of riches and respectability; and, when the twilight deepens
on the place, or at high noon, if your vision is gifted, you may see
them as long rows of Our First Giants, with very corpulent or very broad
fronts, with solid-set feet of sidewalk ending in square-toed curbstone,
with an air about them as if they had thrust their hard hands into their
wealthy pockets forever, with a character of arctic reserve, and portly
dignity, and a well-dressed, full-fed, self-satisfied, opulent, stony,
repellant aspect to each, which says plainly: "I belong to a rich
family, of the very highest respectability."

History, having much to say of Beacon Hill generally, has, on the
present occasion, something to say particularly of a certain street
which bends over the eminence, sloping steeply down to its base. It is
an old street--quaint, quiet, and somewhat picturesque. It was young
once, though--having been born before the Revolution, and was then given
to the city by its father, Mr. Middlecott, who died without heirs, and
did this much