all retired to rest at their usual hour; scarcely were they snugly settled in bed when they heard peculiar noises inside the house.  As time passed the din became terrible—­there was shuffling of feet, slamming of doors, pulling about of furniture, and so forth.  The man of the house got up to explore, but could see nothing, neither was anything disturbed.  The door was securely locked as he had left it.  After a thorough investigation, in which his wife assisted, he had to own he could find no clue to the cause of the disturbance.  The couple went to bed again, and almost immediately the racket recommenced, and continued more or less till dawn.

“The inmates were puzzled and frightened, but determined to try whether the noise would be repeated the next night before telling their neighbours what had happened.  But the pandemonium experienced the first night of their occupation was as nothing compared with what they had to endure the second night and for several succeeding nights.  Sleep was impossible, and finally Mr. M——­ and family in terror abandoned their new home, and retook possession of their old one.

“That is the state of things to this day.  The old house has been repaired and is tenanted.  The new house, a few perches off, facing the public road, is used as a storehouse.  The writer has seen it scores of times, and its story is well known all over the country-side.  Mr. M——­ is disinclined to discuss the matter or to answer questions; but it is said he made several subsequent attempts to occupy the house, but always failed to stand his ground when night came with its usual rowdy disturbances.

“It is said that when building operations were about to begin, a little man of bizarre appearance accosted Mr. M——­ and exhorted him to build on a different site; otherwise the consequences would be unpleasant for him and his; while the local peasantry allege that the house was built across a fairy pathway between two raths, and that this was the cause of the trouble.  It is quite true that there are two large raths in the vicinity, and the haunted house is directly in a bee-line between them.  For myself I offer no explanation; but I guarantee the substantial accuracy of what I have stated above.”

Professor Barrett, in the paper to which we have already referred, draws certain conclusions from his study of this subject; one of the chief of these is that “the widespread belief in fairies, pixies, gnomes, brownies, etc., probably rests on the varied manifestations of poltergeists.”  The popular explanation of the above story bears out this conclusion, and it is further emphasized by the following, which comes from Portarlington:  A man near that town had saved five hundred pounds, and determined to build a house with the money.  He fixed on a certain spot, and began to build, very much against the advice of his friends, who said it was on a fairy path, and would bring him ill-luck.  Soon the house was finished,