Читать книгу The Missing Link in Modern Spiritualism - A. Leah Underhill - Страница 10

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“I lived in this house all one winter, in the family of Mr. ——. I worked for them a part of the time, and a part of the time I boarded and went to school. I lived there about three months. During the latter part of the time I was there I heard these knockings frequently: in the bedroom, under the foot of the bed. I heard it a number of nights, as I slept in the bedroom nearly all the time that I stayed there. One night I thought I heard a man walking in the buttery. This buttery is near the bedroom, with a stairway between the two. Miss Amelia Losey stayed with me that night. She also heard the noise, and we were both much frightened, and got up and fastened down the windows, and fastened the door. It sounded as if a person walked through the buttery, down cellar, and part way across the cellar bottom, and then the noise ceased. There was no one else in the house at the time except my little brother, who was asleep in the same room with us. This was about twelve o’clock I should think. We did not go to bed until after eleven, but had not been asleep when we heard it striking. Mr. and Mrs. ——had gone to Loch Berlin, to be gone till the next day. One morning about a week after this Mrs. ——sent me down cellar to shut the outside door (which fastens on the inside). In going across the cellar I sank knee deep in the centre of the cellar. It appeared to be uneven and very loose. After I got up-stairs Mrs. ——asked me what I screamed for. When I told her, she laughed at me for being frightened, and said it was only where rats had been at work in the ground.

“A day or two after this, Mr. ——carried a lot of dirt into the cellar, just at night, and was at work there some time. Mrs. ——told me that he was filling up the rat-holes.

“A few days before I first heard the noises, or anything of the kind had ever occurred, a foot-pedlar called there about two o’clock in the afternoon. Mrs. ——then told me that Mr. ——thought they would not want me any longer, and that I might go home; but, if they wanted me again they would send for me. Mrs. ——was going to Loch Berlin, to stay that night. This was the first I had heard of it. I wanted to buy some things of the pedlar, but had no money with me, and he said he would call at our house the next morning and sell them to me. I never saw him after that. Three days after this they sent for me to come and board with them, and go to school. I accordingly came, and went to school about one week, when she wanted I should stay out of school and do house-work, as she had a couple of coats to make over for her husband. She said they were too large for her husband, and out of fashion, and she must alter them. They were ripped to pieces when I first saw them. I should think the pedlar was about thirty years old. I heard him conversing with Mrs. ——about his family. He told her how many children he had, in answer to her inquiry. I do not recollect how many he said he had. Mrs. ——told me that he (the pedlar) was an old acquaintance of theirs. A short time after this Mrs. ——gave me a thimble, which she said she had bought of the pedlar, and paid him fifty cents for. Some time after I had left her I visited her again; and she said the pedlar had been there again, and showed me another thimble, which, she said, she had bought of the same pedlar. She said he had cheated her; that he had sold it to her for pure silver, but it was only German silver. She also showed me some other things which she said she had bought of him.

“I did not (and do not now) know what to think of the noises I have heard. The dog would sit under the bedroom window and howl all night long. Mr. and Mrs. ——appeared to be very good folks, only they were rather quick-tempered.

“This pedlar carried a trunk and a basket, I think, with vials of essence in it. He wore a black coat and light-colored pants.

“I am willing to swear to the above statement, if necessary.

“Lucretia Pulver.

“April 11, 1848.”