Weird Stories. By Mrs. J. H. Riddell. (J. Hogg.)—Manufactur- ing
ghost-stories—we suppose these are manufactured—is a profit- less occupation. They are not thrilling, and to be thrilling is their raison d'itre as stories, unless we suppose them to be veritable records, if not of facts, at least of impressions. Some of Mrs. Riddell's ghosts, too, seem unaccountably anxious to promote the happiness of pairs of lovers. " Old Mrs. Jones," however, is a good story of its kind, and might be true, if such things are true. And "Sandy the. Tinker" is "weird" indeed. A Scotch minister dreams that he has been taken down to hell. The Evil One lets him depart, but only on the condition that he will return the next Wednesday, or send a substitute. Whom should he send ? There-is a certain Sandy in the parish, a drunken infidel. His doom, thinks the minister, is fixed, anyhow. Let him be the substitute. To his dismay, Sandy appears next Sunday at church, the first time that he had ever been known to attend any place of worship. The minister is tided over the fatal " Wednesday before midnight" by help of an opiate, but Sandy the tinker is found dead.
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