A GHOST VISITS THE DOCTOR
It had been an exhausting day for Dr. S. Weir Mitchell of Philadelphia, and all he wanted to do was get into bed and sleep. Tomorrow was going to be just as busy at the hospital, attending to various serious cases. It was a bitterly cold winter night and the snow stormed outside. The doctor turned up the heat, climbed into bed with a book and was soon asleep.
A short time later, his rest was interrupted by the ringing of his doorbell. But Dr. Mitchell felt he was too tired to even answer it. He couldn’t imagine who would be at his door at that hour and in that weather anyway, so he chose to ignore it. The bell ringer was insistent, however, continuing to press the button off and on for a full fifteen minutes. The doctor could take no more and reluctantly got out of bed, if only to put an end to the noise. It was 1 a.m., he noticed.
He answered the door, and there stood a small girl of about nine years. She appeared thin and pale, and was covered only in a thin coat and frayed shawl. Dr. Mitchell could not imagine how she withstood the severe winter storm to make it to his door.
“Please, doctor,” the girl said. “My mother is very ill. Will you go to her?”
Although he couldn’t help feeling sorry for the girl, the good doctor was exhausted and told her that she should try to find another doctor. But the girl persisted, telling him that she didn’t know of another doctor, and that her mother wanted only him. Finally, he gave in. He told the young girl to come in and warm up while he dressed. Bundling up warmly, Dr. Mitchell then took the girl out to his car and she directed him to her home – a shabby, decaying building in a poor section of town.
After making their way up several flights of stairs, they finally came to the girl’s apartment, where the doctor found the girl’s mother in bed, looking extremely ill. He instantly recognized the woman as a former servant of his. He examined her and saw that she was very weak and had a dangerously high temperature. He immediately phoned an all-night pharmacy for the proper medicine. Seeing the severity of her condition, he was glad that he was brought there. “You have a very intelligent and considerate daughter,” he said to the woman. “It took courage to go out on a night like this and find a doctor.”
Puzzlement swept across the woman’s face. “But I have no children,” she told him. The doctor looked around the room, and the little girl was nowhere to be seen. “My only daughter died a month ago. Her clothes are over there in the closet.”
The doctor looked in the closet and saw the same threadbare coat and frayed shawl the pale young girl had been wearing.
Next page: The Glowing Woman
