THE FIVE JARS
by
M. R. JAMES.
Author of “Ghost Stories of an Antiquary”
New York. Longmans, Green & Co.
London. Edward Arnold & Co.
1922
All Rights Reserved
Printed in Great Britain by
UNWIN BROTHERS, LIMITED, THE GRESHAM PRESS, LONDON AND WOKING
CONTENTS
I
THE DISCOVERY
My Dear Jane,
You remember that you werepuzzled when I told you I had heard somethingfrom the owls—or if not puzzled (forI know you have some experience of thesethings), you were at any rate anxious toknow exactly how it happened. Perhapsthe time has now come for you to be told.
It was really luck, and not any skill ofmine, that put me in the way of it; luck,and also being ready to believe more thanI could see. I have promised not to putdown on paper the name of the wood whereit happened: that can keep till we meet;but all the rest I can tell exactly as itcame about.
[12]It is a wood with a stream at the edge ofit; the water is brown and clear. On theother side of it are flat meadows, and beyondthese a hillside quite covered with an oakwood. The stream has alder-trees along it,and is pretty well shaded over; the sun hitsit in places and makes flecks of light throughthe leaves.
The day I am thinking of was a very hotone in early September. I had come acrossthe meadows with some idea of sitting bythe stream and reading. The only changein my plans that I made was that insteadof sitting down I lay down, and instead ofreading I went to sleep.
You know how sometimes—but very, veryseldom—you see something in a dreamwhich you are quite sure is real. So it waswith me this time. I did not dream anystory or see any people; I only dreamt ofa plant. In the dream no one told me anythingabout it: I just saw it growing undera tree: a small bit of the tree root came[13]into the picture, an old gnarled root coveredwith moss, and with three sorts of eyes in it,round holes trimmed with moss—you knowthe kind. The plant was not one I shouldhave thought much about, though certainlyi