A PHANTASM OF THE LIVING.
[TO THE EDITOR OP TEE "SPECTATOR."] SIR,—Three years ago I was staying at Clifton, and one even- ing, when strolling near the Suspension Bridge, a boy, selling the evening papers, offered me one. I bought it more out of pity for the boy than because I wanted it, for I was much. struck by his appearance. He was under-sized, anaemic, dirty„, and in raga, but he had the most wonslerful, great, lustrous. brown eyes I ever saw in an English face. He might have- stood for the model of a typical Italian. He seemed too weak and ill even for his occupation of selling papers. I asked him about his parents. His father worked at the docks unloading., bananas, when he could; there were nine others besides him-, self. There was a fruit shop some distance away, and, as he said he would like some bananas, I bought him .a shilling's worth. to take home, about as much as he could parry, and watched, him limping down the street. On reaching home I told my . wife what had happened, buried myself in a book, and thought no more of the incident. The next morning, just before leav- ing my room, I saw the door open and the boy, precisely as I had seen him the previous evening, entered, and, looking at me for an instant with his wonderful eyes, said, " Mother says. thank you for the bananas, and may God bless you." Then , he left the room, closing the door behind him. The appear- ance and voice were both as real to me as if the boy had come-
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