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A vine on a house by Ambrose
Bierce. About three miles from the little

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town of Norton in Missouri, on
the road leading to Maysville, stands an

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old house that was last occupied by
a family named Harding. Since eighteen eighty

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six, no one has lived in
it, nor is any one likely to

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live in it again. Time and
the disfavor of persons dwelling thereabouts are converting

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it into a rather picturesque ruin.
An observer unacquainted with its history would hardly

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put it into the category of haunted
houses. Yet in all the regioned round,

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such is its evil reputation. Its
windows are without glass, its doorways

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without doors. There are wide breeches
in the shingle roof, and for lack

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of paint, the weather boarding is
dune gray. But these unfailing suns vines

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of the supernatural are partly concealed and
greatly softened by the abundant foliage of a

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large vine overrunning the entire structure.
This vine, of a species which no

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botanist has ever been able to name, has an important part in the story

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of the house. The Harding family
consisted of Robert Harding, his wife Matilda,

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Miss Julia Wint, who was her
sister and two young children. Robert

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Harding was a silent, cold mattered
man who made no friends in the neighborhood

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and apparently cared to make none.
He was about forty years old, frugal

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and industrious, and made a living
from the little farm, which is now

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overgrown with brush and brambles. He
and his sister in law were rather tabooed

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by their neighbors, who seemed to
think that they were seen too frequently together,

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not entirely their fault, for at
these times they evidently did not challenge

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observation. The moral code of rural
Missouri is stern and exacting. Missus Harding

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was a gentle, sad eyed woman, lacking a left foot. At some

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time in eighteen eighty four, it
became known that she had gone to visit

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her mother in Iowa. That was
what her husband said in reply to inquiries,

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and his manner of saying it did
not encourage further questioning. She never

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came back, and two years later, without selling his farm or anything that

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was his, or appointing an agent
to look after his interests, or removing

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his household goods, Harding, with
the rest of the family left the country.

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Nobody knows whither he went. Nobody
at that time cared naturally. What

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never was movable about the place soon
disappeared, and the deserted house became haunted

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in the manner of its kind.
One summer evening four or five years later,

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the Reverend J. Gruber of Norton
and the Marysville attorney named Hyatt,

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met on horseback in front of the
harding place. Having business matters to discuss.

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They hitched their animals, and,
going to the house, sat on

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the porch to talk. Some humorous
reference to the sober reputation of the place

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was made and forgotten as soon as
uttered, and they talked of their business

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affairs until it grew almost dark.
The evening was oppressively warm, the air

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stagnant. Presently, both men started
from their seats in surprise. A long

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vine that covered half the front of
the house and dangled its branches from the

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edge of the porch above them,
was visibly and audibly agitated, shaking violently

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in every stem and leaf. We
shall have a storm, Hyatt exclaimed.

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Gruber said nothing, but silently directed
the other's attention to the foliage of adjacent

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trees, which showed no movement.
Even the delicate tips of the boughs,

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silhouetted against the clear sky, were
motionless. They hastily passed down the steps

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to what had been a lawn,
and looked upward at the vine, whose

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entire length was now visible. It
continued in violent agitation. Yet they could

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discern no disturbing cause. Let us
leave, said the minister, And leave

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they did, forgetting that they had
been traveling in opposite directions, they rode

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away. Together. They went to
Norton, where they related this strange experience

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to several discreet friends. The next
evening, at about the same accompanied by

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two others whose names are not recalled, they were again on the porch of

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the Harding house, and again the
mysterious phenomenon occurred. The vine was violently

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agitated while under the closest scrutiny from
root to tip. Nor did their combined

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strength applied to the trunk serve to
still it. After an hour's observation,

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they retreated, no less wise,
it is thought, than when they had

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come. No great time was required
for these singular facts to rouse the curiosity

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of the entire neighborhood. By day
and by night, crowds of persons assembled

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at the Harding house seeking a sign. It does not appear that any found

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it. Yet so creditable were the
witnesses mentioned, that none doubted the reality

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of the manifestations to which they testified, by either a happy inspiration or some

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destructive sign. It was one day
proposed. Nobody appeared to know from whom

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the suggestion came to dig up the
vine, and after a good deal of

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debate, this was done. Nothing
was found but the root. Yet nothing

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could have been more strange. For
five or six feet from the trunk,

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which had at the surface of the
ground a diameter of several inches, it

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ran downward, single and straight,
into a loose, friable earth. Then

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it divided and subdivided into rootlets,
fibers, and filaments, most curiously interwoven.

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When carefully freed from the soil,
they showed a singular formation in their

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ramifications and doublings back upon themselves.
They made a compact network, having in

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size and shape an amazing resemblance to
a human figure head. Trunk and limbs

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were there, even the fingers and
toes were distinctly defined, and many professed

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to see in the distribution and arrangement
of the fibers in the globular mass representing

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the head a grotesque suggestion of a
face. The figure was horizontal. The

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smaller roots had begun to unite at
the breast in point of resemblance to the

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human form. This image was imperfect. At about ten inches from one of

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the knees, the scilia forming that
leg had abruptly doubled backward and inward upon

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their course of growth. The figure
lacked a left foot. There was but

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one inference, the obvious one.
But in the ensuing excitement, as many

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courses of action were proposed, as
there were incapable counselors, the matter was

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settled by the sheriff of the county, who, as the lawful custodian of

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the abandoned estate, ordered the route
replaced and the excavation filled with the earth

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that had been removed. Later inquiry
brought out only one fact of relevance and

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significance. Missus Hardin had never visited
her relatives in Iowa, nor did they

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know that she was supposed to have
done so. Of Robert Harding and the

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rest of his family, nothing is
known. The house retains its evil reputation,

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but the replanted vine is as orderly
and well behaved a vegetable as a

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nervous person could wish to sit under. Of a pleasant night, when the

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katy DIDs grate out their immemorial revelation, and the distant whipperwill signifies his notion

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of what ought to be done about
it. The End of a Vine on

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a House by Ambrose Bierce