A man, his wife and their two-month old baby moved into a house in the country.

In this particular community, the houses were from one-half to one mile apart.


The house had two rooms downstairs and one large room upstairs, and

someone had removed the stairs.  It was late when the family moved

in, so they put up a bed in the front room for the night.  So it 

would be possible for them to go upstairs, the man would begin 

making a stairway the next day.


Sometime during the night the woman was awakened by a noise.
  
She listened for a second and discovered that the noise was coming

from the upstairs bedroom.  She awakened her husbandand they listened.

Someone was rocking in the chair just above their bed.


When they had rented the house, they had been told no one
 
had lived in it for many years.  But they wondered if someone,

perhaps a hobo, could have been upstairs when they moved in.
  
It had been impossible to look.


The house had no electricity, and they had only kerosene lamps,
 
so they decided to wait until daylight to see what was making 

the noise.  When they got up in the morning they could still 

hear the chair rocking.


The man and woman moved the table to where the stairs would go
 
and placed a wooden box on top.  The man poked his head through
 
the opening and was able to see a rocking chair, rocking without
 
anyone sitting in it.  There were some long dresses and winter
 
coats, all on hangers, several pairs of shoes and a sewing basket.


That day the man began to build the stairs, but he did not finish
 
by nightfall.  The family slept downstairs again.  Once more they
 
heard rocking and, this time someone walking around above their heads.


They were up early, as the man was determined to finish the stairs
 
and solve the mystery.  In the afternoon the couple went upstairs,
 
leaving the baby in her crib.  They found an old cupboard, but 

there was no food in it.  All the time they were upstairs the 

chair kept rocking.  The man took the chair and laid it on its side.
  

His wife cried out, “Look at these dresses.”  They both saw the 

dresses swaying back and forth.  The man say a bony hand sticking

 out of the sleeve of one of the dresses.  He said quickly, 

“Let’s go downstairs.  It’s time to feed the baby.”  He 

hoped his wife had not seen the bony hand.  He told her 

to go down first and he would walk behind her.  They were 

halfway down when they heard a loud noise.  Someone had 

picked up the rocking chair and was rocking in it again.


The man told his wife to grab the baby and he would take them
 
somewhere to spend the night.  He would find someone to stay 

the night with him at this strange house, as he wanted to find 

out about the unusual activities upstairs.  His wife did not 

want to go, but when he told her about the bony hand she no 

longer argued.


As they left the house they heard more noise upstairs. The man 

was glad to get his wife and child out before harm came to them.


He took his family a mile away to a neighbour’s house.  Six 

men volunteered to go back with him.  All carried kerosene 

lanterns, and it was dark when they got to the house.  They 

heard the rocking chair and decided to go upstairs and throw 

everything outside.
  

The first man who went up had a hand pushed in his face.  

The battle did not last long.  Five of the men collapsed 

as if under a drug: the sixth man ran out to contact the 

owner.  Five men had to have medical attention and were found

 to be under hypnosis.


News of what happened soon spread.  An old woman came to see 

the young couple and told them what she knew about the mystery.


The woman who had lived in the house had been a bad woman.  

When she became ill and was told she would die, she refused 

to believe it and would not repent of her sins.  She warned 

that she would haunt people after she died and that anyone 

who crossed her path would be put to sleep.


The young family was never able to live in the house, and 

shortly after their experience it burned to the ground.