The Wreck of the South Pole and Other Strange Tales — page 104: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

The Baby Ghost. 97 But to the parley, which occurred at night, as all intel- ligent persons well know, for a ghost never appears in the day time. People could see through it too plainly then. Well, the Otto family were all in bed, father and mother Otto side by side, and the three little Ottos ranged in a row in the trundle bed at the foot. .All were asleep, and at 12 o'clock the clock struck and all awoke. Mamma Otto turned over and asked what the children wanted, and father Otto turned over and asked why the little brats could not keep still. Mamma Otto then be- gan a curtain lecture, but it was broken off suddenly and she cried: “Oh, James, what is that?” “By my soul,” said James, “it is the baby ghost.” “Oh, mamma,” screamed the three little Ottos, “see that baby all in white like me! But, oh!—I can see right through it, and it hasn’t any insides. Who is it?” Papa Otto looked out and saw the baby creeping around upon the floor and making a moaning noise. He was tenderhearted toward babies, but he did not feel par- ticularly friendly toward their ghosts. So his speech proved a mixture of tenderness and roughness. “Look here,’ he began quite fiercely—then “Chick-a- biddie, what do you want?” At the first word the spectre did not pay any attention to him, but at the magic baby words, “‘Chick-a-biddie,”’ it looked up. “Dear ‘ittle baby,” said Mrs. Otto, trying to pacify it, ot doo ’oo ’ont?” ‘és 9 Connicooolk (EO)