Midnight
I can not be blamed because these things happen to me . If I sat down in my study to imagine the strange incidents to which I have in the past called attention , with no other object in view than to make my readers unwilling to retire for the night , to destroy the peace of mind of those who are good enough to purchase my literary wares , or to titillate till tense the nerve tissue of the timid who come to smile and who depart unstrung , then should I deserve the severest condemnation ; but these things I do not do . I have a mission in life which I hold as sacred as my good friend Mr. Howells holds his . Such phases of life as I see I put down faithfully , and if the Fates in their wisdom have chosen to make of me the Balzac of the Supernatural , the Shakespeare of the Midnight Visitation , while elevating Mr. Howells to the high office of the Fielding of Massachusetts and its adjacent States , the Smollett of Boston , and the Sterne of Altruria , I can only regret that the powers have dealt more graciously with him than with me , and walk my little way as gracefully as I know how . The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune I am prepared to suffer in all meekness of spirit ; I accept them because it seems to me to be nobler in the mind so to do rather than by opposing to end them . And so to my story . I have prefaced it at such length for but one reason , and that is that I am aware that there will be those who will doubt the veracity of my tale , and I am anxious at the outset to impress upon all the unquestioned fact that what I am about to tell is the plain , unvarnished truth , and , as I have already said , it happened last Christmas Eve .