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 a bad effect on him. He was extremely nervous, and he jumped at the slightest noise. For five days he kept in his room. He also made up his mind to give up leaving the blood-stain on the library floor. If the Otis family did not want it, they clearly did not deserve it. They were evidently low, materialistic people, and quite incapable of understanding the importance of supernatural phenomena.

The question of ghostly appearances was of course completely different. This was not something he could choose to do. It was his solemn duty to appear in the corridor once a week. And on the first and third Wednesdays in every month it was his job to make horrible noises from the large window in the hall. These were things which the ghost thought he had to do, or be shamefully disgraced. It is quite true that in his life the ghost had been very evil, but he was very conscientious in all things to do with the supernatural.

So for the next three Saturdays, he crossed the corridor between midnight and three o'clock, as he usually did. But this time he took every possible precaution not to be heard or seen. He removed his boots, and walked as softly as possible on the old worm-eaten floorboards. He wore a large black velvet cloak, and was careful to oil his chains with the Rising Sun Lubricator so that they did not make a noise.

Vocabulary:

Made up his mind: Decided.
Materialistic: Not interested in spiritual or intellectual things.
Incapable: Unable to do something
Phenomena: Interesting things which happen.
Solemn: Very serious.
Disgrace: Something which makes you seem a bad or foolish person.
Conscientious: Doing something carefully and properly.
Precaution: Something you do to stop things going wrong.
Cloak: Old-fashioned clothing worn on the shoulders