Everybody dies, don't they?

Everybody come back.

Isn't that same?

You tried to get into the locked drawer today, didn't you?

How do the dead come back, mother?

What's the secret?

The Crown Derby plate by Marjorie Bowen.

Martha Pim said that she had never seen a ghost

and that she would very much like to do so,

particularly at Christmas,

for you can laugh as you like.

That is the correct time to see a ghost.

I don't suppose you ever will, replied her cousin Mabel comfortably,

while her cousin Clara shuddered and said that she hoped they would change the subject,

or she disliked even to think of such things.

The three elderly, cheerful women sat around a big fire, cozy and content, after a day of pleasant activities.

Martha was the guest of the other two, who owned a handsome, convenient country house.

She always came to spend her Christmas with the winters and found the leisurely country life delightful after the

bustling round of London, for Martha managed an antique shop of the better sort, and worked

extremely hard. She was, however, still full of zest for work or pleasure, though sixty

years old, and looked backwards and forwards to a succession of delightful days.

The other two, Mabel and Clara, they'd quieter but nonetheless agreeable lives.

...