7
‘If you want ghost-stories, I can tell them as well as another; but mind I don’t believe such things,’ said another.
‘Tell me what you’ve heard, then.’
‘Well, I have heard say that there was a woman in the Monti,[9] and not so long ago either, who was always finding money about the house, and that too, in places where she knew no one could have put it. The first thing in the morning when she got up she would find it on the floor all about the room. Or if she got up from her work in the middle of the day, though she knew no one had come in, there it would be.
‘One day she saw three silver papetti[10] on the floor. It wasn’t that there was no silver money ever to be seen, and nothing but dirty paper notes, and half of them false, as it is now o’ days. It was in the time of the Pope, and there was plenty of silver for those who had money at all, but still, to see three silver papetti lying on the floor all of a sudden was a sight for anyone.
‘It looked so strange that she hesitated before she picked it up. But at last she made up her mind and took it. No sooner had she done so than a spirit appeared before her, and said, “Come down with me into the cellar and I’ll show you something.”
‘“No, thank you, sir,” said the woman, not knowing what to do for fear.
‘“Nonsense! come down, you shan’t be hurt,” said the spirit.
‘“I’d rather not, sir, thank you,” was all the woman could stammer out.
‘“You must come! I’ll give you something to make you rich for good and all,” persisted the spirit; and, somehow, she didn’t know how, she felt herself obliged to follow him.
‘Down in the cellar was another spirit awaiting her, and the moment she got down they took her, the one by the head and the other by the feet, and laid her into a coffin[11] which stood there all ready on a bier.[12] One at each end, they took it up, with the woman in it, and walked round and round the cellar with it, chaunting the “Miserere,” and she was too frightened to call out, much more to attempt to move.
‘By-and-by they set the bier down, and as she heard nothing more she concluded the spirits were gone; still she durst not move till some few rays of daylight began to peep through; then she summoned up courage to get out of the coffin.
‘When she did so she saw it was all of solid gold, as well as the bier. There was gold enough to have made her rich to the end of her days, but she was so frightened that she wasn’t able to enjoy it, but died at the end of a month; for riches that are got in ways that are not straightforward never profit anyone.
‘That’s the story as it’s told; but I don’t believe those things, mind you.’