At the end of a precipitous path, which offered every facility for
accidents of all sorts, from a sprained ankle to a broken neck, stood
the cottage, a little white building with a pretty woodbine over the
porch, gay flowers in the garden, and the blue Atlantic rolling up at
the foot of the cliff.

"A regular 'Cottage by the Sea.' It will suit me exactly if I can have
that front upper room. I don't mind being alone, so have my trunk taken
down, please, and I'll get ready for tea," said I, congratulating myself
on my good luck. Alas, how little I knew what a night of terror I was to
pass in that picturesque abode!

An hour later, refreshed by my tea and invigorated by the delicious
coolness, I plunged recklessly into the gayeties of the season, and
accepted two invitations for the evening,--one to a stroll on Sunset
Hill, the other to a clam-bake on the beach.

The stroll came first, and while my friend paused at one of the
fishily-fragrant houses by the way, to interview her washerwoman, I went
on to the hill-top, where a nautical old gentleman with a spy-glass,
welcomed me with the amiable remark,--

"Pretty likely place for a prospeck."

Entering into a conversation with this ancient mariner, I asked if he
knew any legend or stories concerning the old houses all about us.

"Sights of 'em; but it aint allers the _old_ places as has the most
stories concernin' 'em. Why, that cottage down yonder aint more 'n fifty
year old, and they say there's been a lot of ghosts seen there, owin' to
a man's killin' of himself in the back bedroom."

"What, that house at the end of the lane?" I asked, with sudden
interest.

"Jes' so; nice place, but lonesome and dampish. Ghosts and toadstools is
apt to locate in houses of that sort," placidly responded the venerable
tar.

The dampness scared me more than the goblins, for I never saw a ghost
yet, but I had been haunted by rheumatism, and found it a hard fiend to
exorcise.

"I've taken a room there, so I'm rather interested in knowing what
company I'm to have."

"Took a room, hev you? Wal, I dare say you won't be troubled. Some folks
have a knack of seeing sperrits, and then agin some hasn't. My wife is
uncommon powerful that way, but I aint; my sight's dreadful poor for
that sort of critter."

There was such a sly twinkle in the starboard eye of the old fellow as
he spoke, that I laughed outright, and asked, sociably,--

"Has she ever seen the ghosts of the cottage? I