Amos Kilbright | Page 7

I am truly a man, I shall begin to do a man's
work, and what I know not of the things that are about me, that will I
learn as quickly as may be. It is my purpose, sir, to labor with you in
any manner which you may deem fit, and in which I may be found
serviceable until I have gained sufficient money to travel to Bixbury,
and there endeavor to establish myself in some worthy employment. I
had at that place a small estate, but of that I shall take no heed. Without
doubt it has gone, rightly, to my heirs, and even if I could deprive them
of it I would not."
"Have you living heirs besides your grandson here?" I asked.
"That I know not," he said; "but if there be such I greatly long to see
them."
"And how about old Mr. Scott?" said I. "When shall we go to him and
tell him who you are?"

"I greatly desire that that may be done soon," answered Kilbright, "but
first I wish to establish myself in some means of livelihood, so that he
may not think that I come to him for maintenance."
Of course it was not possible for me to turn this man away and tell him
I had nothing for him to do, and therefore I must devise employment
for him. I found that he wrote a fair hand, a little stiff and labored, but
legible and neat, and as I had a good deal of copying to do I decided to
set him to work upon this. I procured board and lodging for him in a
house near by, and a very happy being was Amos Kilbright.
As for me I felt that I was doing my duty, and a good work. But the
responsibility was heavy, and my road was not at all clear before me.
My principal source of anxiety was in regard to my wife. Should I tell
her the truth about my new copyist, or not? In the course of a night I
resolved this question and determined to tell her everything. When the
man was merely Mr. Corbridge's subject the case was different; but to
have daily in my office a clerk who had been drowned one hundred and
two years before, and not tell Mrs. Colesworthy of it would be an
injustice to her.
When I first made known to her the facts of the case my wife declared
that she believed "Psychics" had turned my brain; but when I offered to
show her the very man who had been materialized, she consented to go
down and look at him. I informed Kilbright that my wife knew his story,
and we three had a long and very interesting conversation. After an
hour's talk, during which my wife asked a great many questions which I
should never have thought of, we went upstairs and left Kilbright to his
work.
"His story is a most wonderful one," said Mrs. Colesworthy, "but I
don't believe he is a materialized spirit, because the thing is impossible.
Still it will not do to make any mistakes, and we must try all we can to
help him in case he was drowned when he says he was, and that
German comes over to end his mortal career a second time. Science is
getting to be such a wicked thing that I am sure if he crosses the ocean
on purpose to dematerialize Mr. Kilbright, he will try to do it in some
way or other, whether the poor man was ever a spirit before or not. One
thing, however, is certain, I want to be present when old Mr. Scott is
told that that young man is his grandfather."
Mr. Kilbright worked very assiduously, and soon proved himself of

considerable use to me. When he had lived in Bixbury he had been a
surveyor and a farmer, and now when he finished his copying duties for
the day, or when I had no work of that kind ready for him, it delighted
him much to go into my garden and rake and hoe among the flowers
and vegetables. I frequently walked with him about the town, showing
and explaining to him the great changes that had taken place since the
former times in which he had lived. But he was not impressed by these
things as I expected him to be.
"It seems to me," he said, "as though I were in a foreign country, and I
look upon what lies about me as if everything had always been as I see
it. This town is so different from anything I have ever known that I
cannot imagine it has changed from a condition which was once
familiar to me. At Bixbury,