mysterious actions of poor "Tabby," were assigned
as the cause of the baby wasting, and its fate was to be sealed as soon
as that of the poor infant was decided. That the baby happened to be the
twenty-fourth child of his mother, who had succeeded in rearing four only
of the two dozen, was a fact that seemed to possess no weight whatever in
her estimation. The same strong-minded individual, for in many respects
she _is_ wonderfully strong-minded, scruples not to avow greater faith in
the magical properties of red wool, tied round a finger or an arm, in
curing certain ailments of the frame, than in many a remedy prescribed by
"doctor's" skill; nor has the theoretical belief been altogether
unsupported by practice; on more than one occasion, she will aver, her
own life has thus been saved.

As for divinations and charms, to doubt their faith in them would be to
discredit the evidence of our senses. A poor washerwoman, but a few
years since, who possessed more honesty than wisdom, happened to lose
some linen belonging to one of her employers. _Suspecting_ it to have
been stolen, she repaired to a _wise man_, who, of course, succeeded in
convincing her, upon the payment of half-a-crown, that her surmise was
correct; but as it helped her no further towards its recovery, it only
added to the expense her honesty prompted her to go to, to replace it,
which she secretly contrived to do, and offered it to her employer, with
a statement of the facts.

These are but faint specimens of the "vulgar errors" that are every day
to be met with among the citizens, oftentimes attested more by deeds than
words; for many will in secret consult the _wise_ people, and pay them
well, who would still shrink from openly acknowledging faith in their
revelations or predictions.

Though haunted houses are rare, there still are some known to exist;--one
respectable, elderly maiden, yet amongst us, has veritable tales of
refractory spirits, that took twelve clergymen to read them down, and of
one who haunted some particular closet, where at last he submitted to
priestly authority, a cable and a hook being firmly fixed in the floor of
the closet to bind him. We rather fancy some of the other legends that
we have heard from the same authority, are but variations of the story of
Heard's spirit, that haunted the Alder Carr Fen Broad, which assumed the
appearance of a Jack-o'-Lantern, and refused to be "laid!" the gentlemen
who attempted it failing,