On several occasions, Bob, the head ghost, tormented her so at night that it was with difficulty she could remain in bed.  On one particular occasion the author was called up by Dan at midnight so that he might behold for himself what was going on.  After dressing, he went into Esther’s room, and was horrified by the sight which met his gaze.  There, upon the bed, lay the poor, unhappy girl swollen to an enormous size, her body moving about the bed as if Beelzebub himself were in her, while between her gasps for breath she exclaimed in agonizing sobs:  “Oh, my God, I wish I were dead!  I wish I were dead!”

“Oh, don’t say that, Esther,” plead Olive, “don’t say that.”

“Now, Mr. Hubbell,” said Jane to the author, “you see how much she suffers.”

“Yes, I see,” said Hubbell, “but let us endeavor to hold her, so that this fiend cannot move her about the bed, and then, perhaps, she will not suffer so much.”  So Dan and himself tried to hold her so that she could not be moved, but in vain.

“Well,” said Hubbell, “one ghost is certainly stronger than two men.  Are you sure nothing can be done to relieve her?”

“No,” replied Olive, “Dr. Caritte has tried everything without affording her the slightest relief.  Medicine has no more effect on her than water.”

Jane, Olive, Dan and the author remained up with her for about three hours, during which time she continued to move about the bed, after which the ghost left her and she sank from sheer exhaustion into a state of lethargy.  She had several attacks of this kind during the author’s residence in the cottage, and on one occasion she was seen by Mr. G.G.  Bird, Mr. Jas. P. Dunlap, Mr. Amos Purdy and several ladies; on another occasion by Dr. E.D.  McLean, Mr. Fowler and Mr. Sleep.

Towards the latter part of July the manifestations became so powerful that it was no longer safe to have Esther in the house.  Fires were continually being started, the walls were being broken by chairs, the bed clothes pulled off in the day time, heavy sofas turned upside down, knives and forks thrown with such force that they would stick into doors, food disappeared from the table, finger marks became visible in the butter, and, worse than all, strange voices could be heard calling the inmates by name in the broad light of day.  This was too much; if the ghosts continued to gain in strength they would take possession of the house and all in it, for there were six ghosts, and only five persons in the flesh all told, as follows:  Dan, Olive, Jane, Esther and the author, not, of course, counting the two children—­William Cox and John Teed having left the house before Esther went to St. John, literally driven away by ghosts.

There was but one remedy, and that was that Esther Cox should leave the house even though her sisters loved her dearly.  Simple hearted village maiden!  Fate decreed that she should be torn from their home, but not from their hearts for the simple reason that her room was far more agreeable than her company.