[To THE EDITOR or THE "SPECTATOR:']
SIR,—I shall be glad if you can find space for the following little story, in the hope that some of your readers may be able to suggest an explanation: Many years ago my uncle, a doctor in a country town some thirty miles from London, was driving from his home to pay my parents a visit—we then lived near Highgate—accompanied by his wife, his sister (my mother), and his little son, a child of about six. For part of the journey the child was allowed to sit on the box by the side of the coachman, and from some cause, either a sudden jolt or through leaning over the side, he lost his balance and fell, the wheels of the carriage passing over him. It was a heavy vehicle of the landau type, drawn by a pair of horses and loaded with luggage. My uncle was out in a second, expecting to find his son mortally hurt, as all in the carriage had felt the tilt of the wheels as they had passed over the body. The child was unhurt, and when picked up said a little boy had lifted the wheels as they passed over him. " Hadn't they seen him P" There was not a mark or bruise on the body, and the boy lived to grow up, dying abroad at about thirty- five. He stuck, when questioned afterwards, to his statement that " the little boy had held up the wheels," but nothing more could be got out of him. My uncle, as a medical man, had no explanation that would square with his professional views. He was unable to account for the absence of any sign of injury, either external or internal. My mother, on the other hand, was a mystic, and had what I believe is now called psychic sense. Her firm conviction was that the wheels had actually been held up by some power for the child's protection, and of this she had a certainty. Of course, all depends on the reliability of the evidence in such an impossible story, and all the eye-witnesses are dead, but the facts, I believe, are as I have stated. I have heard it many times from those who saw, and in my own mind there is no room for doubt. Admitting the substantial accuracy of the facts, it would be interesting to find some explanation from any point of view,
Previous page
