"I--don't--know," she gasped.

"You look as if you had seen a ghost."

"I haven't seen anything," said his wife, recovering her breath, "but
I've heard something terrible. It's my belief the attic is haunted. I
went upstairs and put back the wallet, and was looking to see if I
could find another, when all at once the candle went out, and a
terrible noise shook the chamber."

"What was it like, Mrs. F.?"

"I can't tell you. I never heard anything like it before. All I know
is, I wouldn't go up there again tonight for anything."

"Did the boy sleep through it all?"

"How can I tell? The candle was out."

"Perhaps he blew it out."

"Perhaps you're a fool Mr. Fox. It wasn't near the bed, and he was
fast asleep, for I looked at him. It made me think of--of Peter," and
Mrs. Fox shuddered.

Peter had been taken from the poorhouse three years ago by Mr. Fox,
and apprenticed to him by the town authorities. According to popular
report he had been cruelly treated and insufficiently fed, until he
was taken sick and had died in the very bedroom where Mrs. Fox had
been so frightened. This may explain how it was that a woman so