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A Ghost's Tail by Mark Twain.
I took a large room far up Broadway,

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in a huge old building whose upper
stories had been wholly unoccupied for years

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until I came. The place had
long been given up to dust and cobwebs,

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to solitude and silence. I seemed
groping among the tombs and invading the

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privacy of the dead. That first
night, I climbed up to my quarters

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for the first time in my life, A superstitious dread came over me,

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and as I turned a dark angle
of the stairway and an invisible cobweb swung

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its lazy woof in my face and
clung there. I shuddered as one who

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had encountered a phantom. I was
glad enough when I reached my room and

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locked out the mold and the darkness. A cheery fire was burning and the

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great, and I sat down before
it with a comforting sense of relief.

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For two hours I sat there,
thinking of by gone times, recalling old

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scenes and summoning half forgotten faces out
of the mists of the past, listening

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in fancy to voices that long ago
grew silent for all time, and to

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once familiar songs that nobody sings now, And as my reverie softened down to

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a saddern sadder pathos, the shrieking
of the winds outside softened to a wail,

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The angry beating of the rain against
the panes diminished to a tranquil patter,

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and one by one the noises in
the street subsided, until the hurrying

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footsteps of the last belated straggler died
away in the distance and left no sound

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behind. The fire had burned low, a sense of loneliness crept over me.

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I arose and undressed, moving on
tiptoe about the room, doing stealthily

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what I had to do, as
if I were environed by sleeping enemies,

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whose slumbers it would be fatal to
break. I covered up in bed and

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lay listening to the rain and wind
and the faint creaking of distant shutters,

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till they lulled me to sleep.
I slept profoundly, but how long I

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do not know. All at once
I found myself awake and filled with a

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shuddering expectancy. All was still all
but my own heart. I could hear

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it beat Presently. The bed clothes
began to slip away, slowly toward the

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foot of the bed, as if
someone were pulling them. I could not

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stir, I could not speak.
Still, the blanket slipped deliberately away till

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my breast was uncovered. Then,
with a great effort, I seized them

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and drew them over my head.
I waited, listened, waited. Once

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more, that steady pull began,
and once more I lay torpid a century

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of dragging seconds till my breast was
naked again. At last, I roused

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my energies and snatched the covers back
to their place, and held them with

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a strong grip. I waited by
and by, I felt a faint hug,

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and took a fresh grip. The
tug strengthened to a steady strain.

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It grew stronger and stronger. My
whole parted, and for the third time,

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the blanket slid away. I grown, an answering grown came from the

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foot of the bed. Beaded drops
of sweat stood upon my forehead. I

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was more dead than alive. Presently
I heard a heavy footstep in my room,

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the step of an elephant. It
seemed to me it was not like

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anything human, but it was moving
from me. There was relief in that

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I heard it approach the door,
pass out without moving bolt or lock,

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and wander away among the dismal corridors, straining the floors and joists till they

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creaked again as it passed, and
then silence rained once more. When my

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excitement had calmed, I said to
myself, this is a dream, simply

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a hideous dream. And so I
lay thinking it over until I convinced myself

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that it was a dream. And
then a comforting laugh relaxed my lips,

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and I was happy again. I
got up and struck a light, and

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when I found that the locks and
bolts were just as I had left them,

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another soothing laugh welled in my heart
and rippled from my lips. I

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took my pipe and lit it,
and I was just sitting down before the

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fire, when down went the pipe
out of my nerveless fingers. The blood

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forsook my cheeks, and my placid
breathing was cut short with a gasp.

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In the ashes on the hearth,
side by side with my own bare footprint

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was another so vast that, in
comparison, mind was but an infants.

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Then I had had a visitor,
and the elephant tread was explained. I

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put out the light and returned to
bed poles with THEA. I lay a

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long time, peering into the darkness
and listening. Then I heard a grating

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noise overhead, like the dragging of
a heavy body across the floor. Then

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the thrown down of the body,
and the shaking of my windows in response

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to the concussion. In distant parts
of the building, I heard the muffled

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slamming of doors. I heard,
at intervals stealthy footsteps creeping in and out

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among the corridors, and up and
down the stairs. Sometimes these noises approached

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my door, hesitated, and went
away again. I heard the clanking of

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chains. Faintly, and remote passages
listened while the clanking grew near, while

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it weirdly climbed the stairways, marking
each move by the loose surplus of chain

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that fell with an accented rattle upon
each succeeding step. As the goblin that

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bore it advanced, I heard muttered
sentences, half uttered screams that seemed smothered

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violently, and the swish of invisible
garments, the rush of invisible wings.

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Then I became conscious that my chamber
was invaded, that I was not alone.

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I heard sighs and breathings about my
bed and mysterious whisperings. Three little

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spheres of soft phosphorescent light appeared on
the ceiling directly over my head, clung

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and glowed there a moment, and
then dropped two of them upon my face

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and one upon the pillow. They
spattered liquidly and felt warm. Intuition told

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me that they had turned to gouts
of blood as they fell. I needed

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no light to satisfy myself of that. Then I saw pallid faces, dimly

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luminous and white, uplifted hands floating
bodiless in the air, floating a moment,

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and then disappeared. The whispering ceased, and the voices and the sounds

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and all a solemn stillness followed.
I waited and listened. I felt that

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I must have light or die.
I was weak with fear. I slowly

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raised myself toward a sitting posture,
and my face came in contact with a

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clammy hand. All strength went from
me, apparently, and I fell back

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like a stricken invalid. Then I
heard the rustle of a garment. It

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seemed to pass to the door and
go out. When everything was still once

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more, I crept out of bed, sick, and feeble, and lit

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the gas with a hand that trembled
as if it were aged with one hundred

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years. The light brought some little
cheer to my spirits. I sat down

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and fell into a dreary contemplation of
that great footprint in the ashes. By

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and by, its outlines began to
waver and grow dim. I glanced up,

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and the broad gas flame was slowly
wilting away. In the same moment

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I heard that elephant teen tread again. I noted its approach, nearer and

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nearer along the musty halls, and
dimmer and dim The light waned. The

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tread reached my very door and paused. The light had dwindled to a sickly

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blue, and all things about me
lay in a spectral twilight. The door

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did not open, and yet I
felt a faint gust of air fan my

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cheek, and presently was conscious of
a huge, cloudy presence before me.

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I watched it with fascinated eyes.
A pale glow stole over the thing.

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Gradually, its cloudy folds took shape. An arm appeared, then legs,

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then a body, and last a
great sad face looked out of the vapor,

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stripped of its filmy housens, naked, muscular and calmly, the majestic

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Cardiff giant loomed above me. I
said, why is it nobody but you?

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Do you know I have been scared
to death for the last two or

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three hours. Oh, I am
most honestly glad to see you. I

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wish I had a chair here here. Don't try to sit down in that

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thing. But it was too late. He was in it before I could

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stop him, and down he went. I never saw a chair shivered,

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so in my life, stop,
stop, you'll ruin it. Too late

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Again there was another crash, and
another chair was resolved into its original elements,

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confound it. Haven't you got any
judgment at all? Do you want

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to ruin all the furniture on the
place? Here? Here? You petrified

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fool? But it was no use. Before I could arrest him, he

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had sat down on the bed and
it was a melancholy ruin. Now what

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sort of a way is that to
do? First you come lumbering about the

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place, bringing a legion of vegamond
goblins along with you to worry me to

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death, and then when I overlook
an indelicacy of costume which would not be

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tolerated anywhere by cultivated people, except
in a respectable theater, and not even

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there if the nudity were of your
sex. You repay me by reckoning all

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the furniture you can find to sit
down on. And why will you?

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You damage yourself as much as you
do me. You have broken off the

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end of your spinal column and littered
up the floor with chips of your arms,

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till the place looks like a marble
yard. You ought to be ashamed

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of yourself. You are big enough
to know better. Well, I will

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not break anymore furniture. What am
I to rule? I have not had

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a chunced to sit down for a
centurey And the tears came into his eyes,

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poor devil, I said, I
should not have been so harsh with

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you, and you are an orphan
too, no doubt. But sit down

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on the floor here. Nothing else
can stand your weight, And besides,

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we cannot be sociable with you away
up there above me. I want you

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down where I can perch on this
high Countain house stool and gossip with you

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face to face. So he sat
down on the floor and lit a pipe

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which I gave him, threw one
of my red blankets over his shoulders,

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inverted my sitz bath on his head
helmet fashion, and made himself picturesque and

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comfortable. Then he crossed his ankles
while I renewed the fire, and exposed

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the flat, honeycombed bottoms of his
prodigious feet to the grateful warmth. What

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is the matter with the bottom of
your feet and the back of your legs

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that they are gouged up so infernel
shild blades. I caught them clear up

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to the back of my head and
roosting out there Undernoule's form. But I

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love the place. I love it
as one loves his old home. Hmm.

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There is no peace for me like
the piece I feel when I am

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there. We talked along for half
an hour, and then I noticed that

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he looked tired and spoke of it
tired, He said, well, I

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should think so, and now I
will tell you all about it, since

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you have treated me so well.
I am the spirit of the petrified man

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that lies across the street there in
the museum. I am the ghost of

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the cartiff giant. I can have
no rest, no peace, till they

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have given that poor body burial again. Now, what was the most natural

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thing for me to do to make
men satisfy this wish, terrify them into

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it, haunt the place where the
body lay. So I haunted the museum

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night after night. I even got
other spirits to help me, but it

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did no good, for nobody ever
came to the museum at midnight. Then

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it occurred to me to come over
the way and haunt this place a little.

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I felt that if I ever got
a hearing, I must succeed,

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for I had the most efficient company
that perdition could furnish. Night after night,

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we have shivered around through these mildewed
halls, dragging the chains, groaning,

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whispering, tramping up and downstairs till
to tell you the truth, I

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am almost worn out. But when
I saw a light in your room tonight,

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I roused my energies again and went
at it with a deal of the

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old freshness. But I'm tired out, entirely fagged out. Oh give me,

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I beseech you give me some hope. I lit off my perch in

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a burst of excitement and exclaimed,
this transcends everything, everything that ever did

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occur. Why, you poor blundering
old fossil, you have had all your

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trouble for nothing. You have been
haunting a plaster cast of yourself. The

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real Cardiff Giant is in Albany.
A fact, the original fraud was ingeniously

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and fraudfully duplicated and exhibited in New
York as the only genuine Cardiff Giant,

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to the unspeakable disgust of the owners
of the real colossus at the very same

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time that the latter was drawing crowds
at a museum. Is Olbany confounded,

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don't you know your own remains?
I never saw such an eloquent look of

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shame, of pitiable humiliation overspread a
countenance before the petrified man rose slowly to

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his feet and said, honestly,
is that true? As true as I

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am sitting here. He took the
pot from his mouth and laid it on

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the mantle, then stood irresolute a
moment unconsciously from old habit, thrust in

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his hands where his pantaloon pockets should
have been, and meditatively dropping his chin

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on his breast, and finally saying, well, I never felt so absurd

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before. The petrified man has sold
everybody else, and now the mean fraud

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has ended by selling its own ghost. My son, if there is any

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charity left in your heart for a
poor, friendless phantom like me. Don't

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let this get out. How you
would feel if you had made such an

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ass of yourself. I heard his
stately tramp die away, step by step,

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down the stairs and out into the
deserted street, and felt sorry that

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he was gone poor fellow, and
sorrier still that he had carried off my

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red blanket and my bathtub. End
of a ghost's tell