At first this caused my wife, who was a good deal confined to her bed, much annoyance; and we sent to our neighbours to inquire if any hammering or carpentering was going on in their houses but were informed that nothing of the sort was taking place.  I have myself heard it frequently, always in the same inaccessible part of the house, and with the same monotonous emphasis.  One odd thing about it was, that on my wife’s calling out, as she used to do when it became more than usually troublesome, “stop that noise,” it was invariably arrested for a longer or shorter time.

Of course none of these occurrences were ever mentioned in hearing of the children.  They would have been, no doubt, like most children, greatly terrified had they heard any thing of the matter, and known that their elders were unable to account for what was passing; and their fears would have made them wretched and troublesome.

They used to play for some hours every day in the back garden—­the house forming one end of this oblong inclosure, the stable and coach-house the other, and two parallel walls of considerable height the sides.  Here, as it afforded a perfectly safe playground, they were frequently left quite to themselves; and in talking over their days’ adventures, as children will, they happened to mention a woman, or rather the woman, for they had long grown familiar with her appearance, whom they used to see in the garden while they were at play.  They assumed that she came in and went out at the stable door, but they never actually saw her enter or depart.  They merely saw a figure—­that of a very poor woman, soiled and ragged—­near the stable wall, stooping over the ground, and apparently grubbing in the loose clay in search of something.  She did not disturb, or appear to observe them; and they left her in undisturbed possession of her nook of ground.  When seen it was always in the same spot, and similarly occupied; and the description they gave of her general appearance—­for they never saw her face—­corresponded with that of the one-eyed woman whom Smith, and subsequently as it seemed, I had seen.

The other man, James, who looked after a mare which I had purchased for the purpose of riding exercise, had, like every one else in the house, his little trouble to report, though it was not much.  The stall in which, as the most comfortable, it was decided to place her, she peremptorily declined to enter.  Though a very docile and gentle little animal, there was no getting her into it.  She would snort and rear, and, in fact, do or suffer any thing rather than set her hoof in it.  He was fain, therefore, to place her in another.  And on several occasions he found her there, exhibiting all the equine symptoms of extreme fear.  Like the rest of us, however, this man was not troubled in the particular case with any superstitious qualms.  The mare had evidently been frightened; and he was puzzled to find out how, or by whom, for the stable was well-secured, and had, I am nearly certain, a lock-up yard outside.