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In the house of an honest
farmer in Yorkshire, named George Gilbertson, a Boggart had taken up
his abode. He here caused a good deal of annoyance, especially by
tormenting the children in various ways. Sometimes their
bread-and-butter would be snatched away, or their porringers of
bread-and-milk be capsized by an invisible hand; for the Boggart
never let himself be seen; at other times, the curtains of their
beds would be shaken backwards and forwards, or a heavy weight would
press on and nearly suffocate them. The parents had often, on hearing
their cries, to fly to their aid. There was a kind of closet, formed
by a wooden partition on the kitchen-stairs, and a large knot having
been driven out of one of the deal-boards of which it was made, there
remained a hole. Into this one day the farmer's youngest boy stuck
the shoe-horn, with which he was amusing himself, when immediately it
was thrown out again, and struck the boy on the head. The agent was,
of course, the Boggart, and it soon became their sport (which they
called laking with Boggart) To put the shoe-horn into the hole and
have it shot back at them.
The Boggart at length proved such a torment that the farmer
and his wife resolved to quit the house and let him have it all to
himself. This was put into execution, and the farmer and his family
were following the last loads of furniture when a neighbor named John
Marshall came up.
"Well, Georgey," said he, "and soa you're leaving t'ould house at
last?"
"Heigh, Johnny, my lad, I'm forced tull it; for that damned
Boggart torments us soa, we can neither rest neet nor day for't. It
seems loike to have such a malice again t'poor bairns, it onmost
kills my poor dame here at thoughts on't, and soa, ye see, we're
forced to flit loike."
He scarce had uttered the works when a voice from a deep upright
churn cried out, "Aye, aye, Georgey, we're flitting ye see."
"Od damn thee," cried the poor farmer, "if I'd known thou'd been
there, I wadn't ha' stirred a peg. Nay, nay, it's no use, Mally,"
turning to his wife, "we may as weel turn back again to t'ould hoose
as be tormented in another that's not so convenient."
