Page:Ghost of my uncle (NLS104185164).pdf/18

18 assunder, and the morning to dawn. When it was tolerably light I started up, resolved on a stroll over the meadows. Before going out, however, I went into the parlour, where I found every thing in the utmost confusion Chairs, tables, walking-sticks, and logs of wood, lay all over the floor, and every thing upset or in a wrong position. I then proceeded to the outer door, which I opened, but started back in horror, on perceiving a human skull lying on a sheet at my right hand, just without the door. Recovering from my fright, I gathered it up, and could not restrain my laughter, when I discovered it to be nothing more than a mask, representing a death's head. It seems while we were all wrangling the night before, my uncle had stepped out of bed—dressed him self—piled all the furniture, logs of wood and timber, he could in the apartment, in a heap, crowning the pyramid with a dozen or more walking-sticks, which had lain times out of mind on the top of an old cupboard—then gone up stairs and put on the horrid mask—brought down a pistol, and enveloped himself from his feet to his chin, in a clear white sheet; after alarming us, just as the clock struck the awful hour of twelve, by striking three: heavy blows against the wall with a huge log of wood, he contrived to tumble down the whole mass of furniture