thinkin' of a' at hame, and my sister Janet, and the kitten and the
pymag, and Trimmer the tike, and all the rest, and I got sa fidgetty,
I couldn't sleep, and the clock struck twelve, and me wide awake, and
the room as dark as pick. My back was turned to the door, and my eyes
toward the wall opposite.

"Well, it could na be a full quarter past twelve, when I sees a
lightin' on the wall befoore me, as if something took fire behind, and
the shadas o' the bed, and the chair, and my gown, that was hangin'
from the wall, was dancin' up and down on the ceilin' beams and the
yak pannels; and I turns my head ower my shouther quick, thinkin'
something must a gone a' fire.

"And what sud I see, by Jen! but the likeness o' the ald beldame,
bedizened out in her satins and velvets, on her dead body, simperin',
wi' her eyes as wide as saucers, and her face like the fiend himself.
'Twas a red light that rose about her in a fuffin low, as if her dress
round her feet was blazin'. She was drivin' on right for me, wi' her
ald shrivelled hands crooked as if she was goin' to claw me. I could
not stir, but she passed me straight by, wi' a blast o' cald air, and
I sid her, at the wall, in the alcove as my aunt used to call it,
which was a recess where the state bed used to stand in ald times wi'
a door open wide, and her hands gropin' in at somethin' was there. I
never sid that door befoore. And she turned round to me, like a thing
on a pivot, flyrin', and all at once the room was dark, and I standin'
at the far side o' the bed; I don't know how I got there, and I found
my tongue at last, and if I did na blare a yellock, rennin' down the
gallery and almost pulled Mrs. Wyvern's door off t' hooks, and
frighted her half out o' wits.