The Canterville Ghost

The next morning at breakfast, the Otis family talked about the ghost for a long time. Mr Otis was unhappy because the ghost had not taken the oil that Mr Otis had given him. Mr Otis said `I don't want to hurt the ghost, and I must say that, when you think how long he has been in the house, it is not very polite to throw pillows at him'. The ambassador was quite right when he said this, but I am sorry to say that the twins just started to laugh when he said this.

`But also' Mr Otis said, `if the ghost really won't use the oil, we will have to take his chains away. otherwise it will be impossible to sleep, with him making all that noise outside the bedrooms.' But for the rest of the week nothing happened. Only one thing reminded them of the ghost - the blood-stain on the library floor kept coming back. This certainly was very strange, because the door was always locked at night by Mr. Otis, and the windows were always tightly closed. The family also talked a lot about the fact that the colour of the blood stain kept changing.

Some mornings it was dark red, then it would be light red, then a rich purple. Once when they came down for family prayers, (they were members of of the Free American Reformed Episcopalian Church) they found that the blood stain was bright emerald green. The family thought that these many changes were very funny, and every evening they tried to guess what colour it would be the next morning. Only little Virginia did not play this game. Nobody knew why, but she was always very upset when she saw the blood-stain, and the morning when the blood stain was emerald-green, Virginia almost cried.