The news of the fire which the ghost had set in Dan’s cellar soon travelled all over the country and created a great deal of curiosity.  People who had set the whole affair down as a fraud began to think that perhaps it was all true after all, for certainly no young girl could set fire to a barrel of shavings in the cellar and be at that instant in another part of the house, under the watchful eye of an older sister, who was continually at her side.  The fact that both the little boys were out in the front yard at the time the fire was kindled, and consequently could not have had anything to do with setting it, was also calculated to throw an air of mystery around the whole affair.

The family believed that it had been started by the ghost.  The fire marshals of the village seemed to be of the opinion that Esther set both fires herself; the villagers held various opinions.  Dr. Nathan Tupper, suggested that if a good raw hide whip were laid over her back by a strong arm, the manifestations would cease at once.  Fortunately for Esther, no one had the right or power to beat her as if she were a slave, and so the mystery still remained unsolved.

For the next week manifestations continued to take place daily and were as powerful as ever.  The excitement in Amherst was intense.  If the cottage in which Dan lived should catch fire when the wind was blowing from the bay, the fire would spread, and if the wind was favorable for such a terrible calamity, the whole village would soon be reduced to ashes.

As if to pile horror upon horror, one night, as Esther and the entire family were seated in the parlor, the ghost appeared.  Esther started to her feet and seemed for the moment paralyzed with terror.  In a second or two, however, she recovered her self-possession, and pointing with a trembling hand to a distant corner of the room, exclaimed in a hoarse and broken voice: 

“Look there!  Look there!  My God, it is the ghost!  Don’t you all see him?  There he stands all in grey; see how his eyes are glaring at me and he laughs when he says I must leave the house to-night or he will start a fire in the loft under the roof and burn us all to death.  Oh, what shall I do, where shall I go; the ground is covered with snow—­and yet I cannot remain here, for he will do what he threatens; he always does.”

“Oh, I wish I were dead.”  After this exclamation, she fell to the floor and burst into an agony of grief.  “Well,” said Dan, after lifting her up, “Something will have to be done, and quickly, too.  The wind is blowing hard to-night, and if the ghost does as he threatens, the house will burn down sure, and perhaps the whole village.  You must go, Esther.  Remember, I don’t turn you out; it is this devil of a ghost who drives you from your home.”