Sophy Benson, when she was only eleven years old, could write, read,
draw, and play on the piano-forte, better than any little girl of her
age in the whole neighbourhood; she was obedient to her papa and mamma,
affectionate to her brothers and sisters, and would do any thing to
oblige her friends, except going up stairs after night, staying in the
garden alone a moment after the dusk of the evening, or going to bed
before her sister. On these points, though she really wished to shew a
readiness to do as she was desired, and had often attempted to do so,
she never had been able to find resolution sufficient to carry her
through with it; for she had heard of ghosts, giants, fairies, and
monsters of divers kinds, and was never an instant alone in the dark,
without expecting to see one or the other; concluding, it must be
imagined, that it was customary with those gentlemen and ladies to pay
their visits, each with a wax taper in their hands, to exhibit their
persons by.
Sophy had a brother, a good-natured boy, one year younger than herself,
whom she always contrived to get to accompany her when she had any thing
to fetch from her chamber after night; but unfortunately, she had
repeated so many terrible stories to him (to shew that she was not
afraid without reason), that poor Harry soon became almost as great a
coward as his sister; and they found, that whenever they had occasion to
go out of the parlour after candlelight, it was necessary to procure a
third person to be of their party, for they no longer thought themselves
in safety together.
It may be thought a fortunate circumstance, that the infection did not
spread, or the whole family would soon have been obliged to move in a
body; but there was little danger of any thing so ridiculous: it was, on
the contrary, much to be wondered at that a sensible girl, like Sophy
Benson, should have been capable of such a weakness, and that she never
gave herself time to reflect, that there could not be the smallest
foundation for the silly fears with which she had filled her head.
Her mamma had taken a great deal of pains to endeavour to convince her
of the folly of indulging herself in such ridiculous fancies, but it was
to no purpose; her imagination was continually making her see strange
sights, and hear extraordinary noises; and though she exposed herself to
the ridicule and laughter of her elder brothers and sisters, when her
giant proved to be a tree, and her dismal groans to be occasioned by the
noise of a door or a window-shutter on a stormy night: still she went on
in the same way, and had made poor little Harry as foolish as herself.
Whenever she was alone, either in the house or garden, a moment later
than she liked to be, her heart immediately began to beat, and she flew
like lightning to seek protection; her hands clasped, her elbows
squeezed close to her sides, and her head hung down--and in this way,
every object she glanced her eyes upon appeared to her fancy something
extraordinary: had she but summoned resolution to take a second look,
she must have laughed at her own folly.
One evening she came screaming into the parlour, and assured her mamma
that she had had the greatest difficulty to escape from a hideous
creature, who, with outspread arms, was on the point of seizing her, and
begged the door might be locked immediately. Her mamma, and her
brothers and sisters, laughed immoderately at her strange story, which
mortified her extremely; but they could not prevail on her to _shew_
them where she had seen the terrible creature: she could, however, tell
them the exact spot, though she endeavoured to dissuade them from
venturing to go to it; but she could not prevail on any of them to be
frightened, and they soon discovered the monster, with its outspread
arms, to be nothing more than the horse on which the servant had been
beating her papa's coat.
One evening, when the moon shone bright and fine, and Sophy and Harry
had a very great desire to fetch a box of dominos which was in the
nursery, and which they well knew they should not have, unless they went
themselves to fetch it, after sitting half an hour, whispering and
endeavouring to assume sufficient courage for so great an undertaking,
they at length determined to go, for they were tired of having nothing
to amuse themselves with, and had still a long winter evening before
them.
Quaking through fear, and holding as fast as they possibly could by each
other's hand, they ascended the stairs, got into the passage which led
to the nursery, and were just going to open the door, when Sophy
recollected, that if Harry was seen by her maid, she should be finely
laughed at, and asked if she dared not venture to take a step without
having him to protect her; she therefore begged he would wait at the
door whilst she went into the nursery to fetch the dominos; but Harry
would not hear of such a thing, and said he would not stay in the
passage alone on any account whatever.
Sophy was so desirous of appearing courageous to her maid, that she
tried every means she could think of to engage Harry to wait for her;
told him she would not be a moment, that the moon shone as bright as
day--but all was to no purpose, till by promising to give him her little
box of colours, and her ivory cup and ball, she at length prevailed upon
him to consent.
She walked into the nursery with an air of unconcern and boldness not at
all usual to her; but it was quite lost, for Mary was not there and she
knew not how to venture so far as a closet at the other end of it, to
take out the box of dominos, but was on the point of calling Harry to
come to her, when thinking the maid might be in the next room, she
wished, if possible, to save her credit. With trembling steps she
advanced towards the closet, reached it without any _terrible accident_,
and having opened the door, began to grope about for the box: it was
neither on the first shelf nor the second, and passing her hand along
the third, it fell upon something colder than stone.
Afraid of being laughed at, she determined not to scream, but with the
utmost expedition quitted the nursery, without thinking of the dominos,
and went to join her brother; but she had no sooner reached the passage,
than she saw (too plainly she saw it to believe it to be the effect of
fear) a figure dressed in long white robes, having one arm extended
towards her, entirely covered with black, and in a low tremulous voice,
it called "Sophy, Sophy, Sophy."
This was the most alarming and terrible adventure she had ever met with;
and if she had command enough over herself not to scream when she
touched the unaccountable cold thing in the closet, she now could shew
no such fortitude; but sinking on the floor, for her knees could no
longer support her weight, she screamed so loud, that the poor ghost,
who had been as much terrified as herself, throwing aside his white
robes, ran towards her for protection, crying, "Sophy, Sophy! my dear
Sophy! is it you?--Oh dear! I thought it was all over with me; I have
been almost smothered since you left me, and really thought I was going
to be buried alive."
Mary, who heard the bustle, now made her appearance with a light, and,
perceiving what had happened, became extremely angry, asking them if
they imagined she had nothing to do but to wash their linen, to have it
pulled about the dirty passage. "And here is my black silk
handkerchief!" exclaimed she in a violent rage.--"Did I wash it so well
in small beer, to make it look nice and fresh, for you to twist it about
your arm, master Harry? Pray look what a condition you have made it in."
Harry looked extremely foolish, when he discovered that the only danger
with which he had been menaced, was that of taking cold by having been
covered with wet linen. The truth was, that, when his sister left him,
he was so much afraid of being alone, that though he longed for the
colours, and the cup and ball, he thought he was paying much too high a
price for them, and almost repented of his promise. Willing, however, to
gain the two things he most wished for, he determined to bear the lonely
situation he was left in, but fancied if he could get away from the
door, and place his back against the wall, he should be much safer, and
more out of the way of danger.
Endeavouring by these means to secure himself, and shutting his eyes,
that he might not see any thing disagreeable by the light of the moon,
whose beams reflected different objects along the wall, he unfortunately
stepped upon the end of a line, on which Mary had hung to dry the whole
labour of the day, and having entangled his feet in it, by some means or
other gave it such a jerk, that the nail sprung out, and in an instant
poor Harry was half smothered under the weight of a quantity of wet
linen, which he concluded (agreeably to the wonderful and surprising
histories his sister had recounted to him) could be nothing less than
some giant, who was going to bury him alive.
When Mary visited the closet, her anger rose to a prodigious pitch; for
Sophy, in groping about for her box of dominos, had not only dirtied her
fingers and hands, but had left the marks of them on Mary's new-washed
caps and handkerchiefs, which she had put aside on a plate, till she
could find time to iron them.
The whole story was repeated in the parlour, and the evening spent in
mirth at the expense of the cowards.