The Canterville Ghost

THE next day the ghost was very weak and tired. The terrible excitement of the last four weeks was beginning to have its effect. His nerves were completely shattered, and he jumped at the slightest noise. For five days he kept his room, and at last made up his mind to give up the point of the blood-stain on the library floor. If the Otis family did not want it, they clearly did not deserve it. They were evidently people on a low, material plane of existence, and quite incapable of appreciating the symbolic value of supernatural phenomena.

The question of ghostly apparitions was of course quite a different matter, and really not under his control. It was his solemn duty to appear in the corridor once a week, and to gibber from the large oriel window on the first and third Wednesdays in every month, and he did not see how he could honourably escape from his obligations. It is quite true that his life had been very evil, but, upon the other hand, he was most conscientious in all things connected with the supernatural.

For the next three Saturdays, accordingly, he traversed the corridor as usual between midnight and three o'clock, taking every possible precaution against being either heard or seen. He removed his boots, trod as lightly as possible on the old worm-eaten boards, wore a large black velvet cloak, and was careful to use the Rising Sun Lubricator for oiling his chains.

Vocabulary:

Shattered: To break into small pieces.
Material: Not interested in spiritual or intellectual things.
Phenomena: Interesting things which happen.
Apparitions: Appearances.
Gibber: Quick hysterical speech.
Obligation: Something you must do.
Conscientious: Doing something carefully and properly.
Traverse: Go across.
Cloak: Old-fashioned clothing worn on the shoulders