Knocking

On Thursday night, the 19th of February, 1885, I dreamed the following dream. A servant, a Lincolnshire woman, has lived in our house for two years ; and of her, whom I never see in the day, I dreamt, as portentously as if her troubles were my own. There is nothing remarkable in this young woman's character or experience. She is but an ordinary rather rough specimen of a village girl, quiet and respectable. In my dream a long country lane was before me ; in this I walked with the Lincolnshire cook, without speaking ; yet I knew that my companion was going with me as a sort of escort to some errand of my own. Then a face appeared over the hedge, a solemn, silent face, exactly resembling that of the one who noiselessly moved beside me ; the sternest suffering was impressed upon the plain hard-lined countenance. From beside me the country servant instantly departed to follow the warning voiceless form through the hedge, into a little house. Only a long minute passed, and the servant rushed from the hedge, absolutely wringing her hands, crouching to the ground in dumb agony. ' 'Tis my sister called me, she beckoned me in ; but she will not speak : she will not have me with her.' As she spoke the vision returned. It looked over the low hedge, with the same indescribable expression of sadness unspeakable — of a terrible woe impossible of utterance. It flung back its sleeve, and lifting one arm, pointed to a single white spot in the centre of a finger. And as suddenly as I had fallen on this dream, so suddenly I awoke. I tried to cast off the shadow the dream had cast on me. But the same evening came the news that the country cook's sister was very ill, and had prematurely been confined with a child born dead. Emily Makion Haekis. In answer to inquiries, Miss Harris adds : — Certainly I repeated my dream even before I left my room. I asked the housemaid whether she knew of any reason her fellow-servant might have to fear, or to hear bad news. She said, 'No,' and after that I told my sister. Nothing was said about the dream during Friday. On Saturday morning, when I returiied from a class — having dismissed the occurrence from my mind for the time — my sister immediately told me that the coincidence of dream and fact were marvellously similar. The poor woman whom I saw with such dumb appeal on her countenance, was alone, unable to speak, meeting her trouble alone, her husband, who is a policeman, being on night duty. She thought it was impossible to be heard, till she found a stick of his, and contrived to knock on the fl