HAUNTED HOUSES

Does it not bring us face to face with a spiritual being endowed with special faculties? A sailor original: "mariner" writes to me from Brest:

From 1870 to 1874, I had a brother employed at the arsenal of Foochow Fuzhou, China, in China, as a fitter original: "fitter"; a technician who assembles or repairs machinery. A friend of his, a mechanic who came from the same town (Brest) and was also employed at the Foochow arsenal, came one morning to see my brother at his lodgings and told him the following story: "My dear friend, I am much upset. I dreamed last night that my little child died of croup original: "croup"; a childhood respiratory infection characterized by a barking cough on a red eiderdown original: "eiderdown"; a heavy quilt or comforter filled with down feathers." My brother ridiculed his fears, spoke of nightmares, and—in order to dispel original: "dissipate" the impression—invited his friend to lunch. But nothing could distract him. To him, his child was dead.

The first letter he received from France after that event was from his wife, announcing the death of their child from croup after great suffering, and—strangely enough—on a red eiderdown, on the very night of the dream.

Upon receiving this letter, he showed it, weeping, to my brother, from whom I heard the story.

My father had a friend from his youth, General Charpentier de Cossigny, who had always shown much affection toward me. As he had a nervous condition original: "trouble" which made his temperament original: "humour" very eccentric, we were never surprised when he paid us several visits in quick succession and then stopped visiting us for months. In November 1892 (we had not seen him for about three months), I had a migraine original: "sick headache" and went to bed early. I had just begun to doze when I heard my name, pronounced at first in a low tone, and then rather more loudly. I listened, thinking it was my father calling; but I heard him in the neighboring room, and his breathing was very regular, as if he had been asleep for some time. I dozed again, and had a