behold for himself what was going on. After dressing, he went into
Esther's room, and was horrified by the sight which met his gaze. There,
upon the bed, lay the poor, unhappy girl swollen to an enormous size,
her body moving about the bed as if Beelzebub himself were in her, while
between her gasps for breath she exclaimed in agonizing sobs: "Oh, my
God, I wish I were dead! I wish I were dead!"

"Oh, don't say that, Esther," plead Olive, "don't say that."

"Now, Mr. Hubbell," said Jane to the author, "you see how much she
suffers."

"Yes, I see," said Hubbell, "but let us endeavor to hold her, so that
this fiend cannot move her about the bed, and then, perhaps, she will
not suffer so much." So Dan and himself tried to hold her so that she
could not be moved, but in vain.

"Well," said Hubbell, "one ghost is certainly stronger than two men. Are
you sure nothing can be done to relieve her?"

"No," replied Olive, "Dr. Caritte has tried everything without affording
her the slightest relief. Medicine has no more effect on her than
water."

Jane, Olive, Dan and the author remained up with her for about three
hours, during which time she continued to move about the bed, after
which the ghost left her and she sank from sheer exhaustion into a state
of lethargy. She had several attacks of this kind during the author's
residence in the cottage, and on one occasion she was seen by Mr. G.G.
Bird, Mr. Jas. P. Dunlap, Mr. Amos Purdy and several ladies; on another