illusion, or a prank of my mates; I'll sleep and forget it,' I said, and
for a time endeavored to do so, but curiosity overcame my resolve, and
soon I peeped again. Judge of my horror when I saw the sharp white
outline of a dead face, which seemed to be peeping up from the coffin.
It gave me a terrible shock for I was but a lad and had been ill. I hid
my face and quaked like a nervous girl, still thinking it some joke and
too proud to betray fear lest I should be laughed at. How long I lay
there I don't know, but when I looked again the face was farther out and
the whole figure seemed rising slowly. The moon was nearly down, I had
no lamp, and to be left in the dark with that awesome thing was more
than I could bear. Joke or earnest, I must end the panic, and bolting
out of my room I roused my neighbor. He told me I was mad or drunk, but
lit a lamp and returned with me, to find my horror only a heap of
clothes thrown on the table in such a way that, as the moon's pale light
shot it, it struck upon my black student's gown, with a white card lying
on it, and produced the effect of a coffin and plate. The face was a
crumpled handkerchief, and what seemed hair a brown muffler. As the moon
sank, these outlines changed and, incredible as it may seem, grew like a
face. My friend not having had the fright enjoyed the joke, and
'Coffins' was my sobriquet for a long while."

"You get worse and worse. Sir Jasper, do vary the horrors by a touch of
fun, or I shall run away," said Blanche, glancing over her shoulder
nervously.

"I'll do my best, and tell a story my uncle used to relate of his young
days. I forget the name of the place, but it was some little country
town famous among anglers. My uncle often went to fish, and always
regretted that a deserted house near the trout stream was not occupied,
for the inn was inconveniently distant. Speaking of this one evening as