STORIES SELECTED, WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY DOROTHY SCARBOROUGH, PH.D. LECTURER IN ENGLISH, COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY AUTHOR OF "THE SUPERNATURAL IN MODERN ENGLISH FICTION," G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS To DR. AND MRS. JOHN T. HARRINGTON Life flings miles and years between us, But brings never to me dearer The Humorous Ghost INTRODUCTION THE humorous ghost is distinctly a modern character. In early literature wraiths took themselves very seriously, and insisted on a proper show of respectful fear on the part of those whom they honored by haunting. A mortal was expected to rise when a ghost entered the room, and in case he was slow about it, his spine gave notice of what etiquette demanded. In the event of outdoor apparition, if a man failed to bare his head in awe, the roots of his hair reminded him of his remissness. Woman has always had the advantage over man in such emergency, in that her locks, being long and pinned up, are less easily moved-which may explain the fact (if it be a fact!) that in fiction women have shown themselves more self-possessed in ghostly presence than men. Or possibly a woman knows that a masculine spook is, after all, only a man, and therefore may be charmed into helplessness, while the feminine can be seen through by another woman and thus disarmed. The majority of the comic apparitions, curiously enough, are masculine. You don't often find women wraithed in smiles-perhaps because they resent being made ridiculous, even after they're |