12/41One evening, however,

After the meal, the boy, who was about seven years old at the time, left his father at
work, and, as he said, went to look for flowers in the wood, and the man, who could
hear him shouting with delight at his discoveries, felt no uneasiness. Suddenly,
however, he was horrified at hearing the most dreadful screams, evidently the result
of great terror, proceeding from the direction in which his son had gone, and he 
hastily threw down his tools and ran to see what had happened. Tracing his path by
the sound, he met the little boy, who was running headlong, and was evidently
terribly frightened, and on questioning him the man elicited that after picking a posy
of flowers he felt tired, and lay down on the grass and fell asleep. He was suddenly
awakened, as he stated, by a peculiar noise, a sort of singing he called it, and on
peeping through the branches he saw Helen V. playing on the grass with a “strange
naked man,” who he seemed unable to describe more fully. He said he felt dreadfully
frightened and ran away crying for his father. Joseph W. proceeded in the direction
indicated by his son, and found Helen V. sitting on the grass in the middle of a glade
or open space left by charcoal burners. He angrily charged her with frightening his
little boy, but she entirely denied the accusation and laughed at the child’s story of a
“strange man,” to which he himself did not attach much credence. Joseph W. came to
the conclusion that the boy had woke up with a sudden fright, as children sometimes
do, but Trevor persisted in his story, and continued in such evident distress that at
last his father took him home, hoping that his mother would be able to soothe him.
For many weeks, however, the boy gave his parents much anxiety; he became nervous
​and strange in his manner, refusing to leave the cottage by himself, and constantly
alarming the household by waking in the night with cries of “The man in the wood!
father! father!”
In course of time, however, the impression seemed to have worn off, and about
three months later he accompanied his father to the home of a gentleman in the
neighborhood, for whom Joseph W. occasionally did work. The man was shown into
the study, and the little boy was left sitting in the hall, and a few minutes later, while
the gentleman was giving W. his instructions, they were both horrified by a piercing
shriek and the sound of a fall, and rushing out they found the child lying senseless on
the floor, his face contorted with terror. The doctor was immediately summoned, and
after some examination he pronounced the child to be suffering form a kind of fit,
apparently produced by a sudden shock. The boy was taken to one of the bedrooms,
and after some time recovered consciousness, but only to pass into a condition
described by the medical man as one of violent hysteria. The doctor exhibited a
strong sedative, and in the course of two hours pronounced him fit to walk home, but
in passing through the hall the paroxysms of fright returned and with additional
violence. The father perceived that the child was pointing at some object, and heard
the old cry, “The man in the wood,” and looking in the direction indicated saw a stone
head of grotesque appearance, which had been built into the wall above one of the
doors. It seems the owner of the house had recently made alterations in his premises,
and on digging the foundations for some offices, the men had found a curious head,
evidently of the Roman period, which had been placed in the manner described. The
head is pronounced by the most experienced archaeologists of the district to be that
of a faun or satyr. [Dr. Phillips tells me that he has seen the head in question, and
assures me that he has never received such a vivid presentment of intense evil.]
From whatever cause arising, this second shock seemed too severe for the boy
Trevor, and at the present date he suffers from a weakness of intellect, which gives
but little promise of amending. The matter caused a good deal of sensation at the
time, and the girl Helen was closely questioned by Mr. R., but to no purpose, she
steadfastly denying that she had frightened or in any way molested Trevor.
The second event with which this girl’s name is connected took place about six
years ago, and is of a still more extraordinary character.
At the beginning of the summer of 1882, Helen contracted a friendship of a
peculiarly intimate character with Rachel M., the daughter of a prosperous farmer in
the neighbourhood. This girl, who was a year younger than Helen, was considered by
most people to be the prettier of the two, though Helen’s features had to a great
extent softened as she became older. The two girls, who were together on every
available opportunity, presented a singular contrast, the one with her clear, olive skin
and almost Italian appearance, and the other of the proverbial red and white of our
rural districts. It must be stated that the payments made to Mr. R. for the
maintenance of Helen were known in the village for their excessive liberality, and the
impression was general that she would one day inherit a large sum of money from her
relative. The parents of Rachel were therefore not averse from their daughter’s
friendship with the girl, and even encouraged the intimacy, though they now bitterly
regret having done so. Helen still retained her extraordinary fondness for the forest,
and on several occasions Rachel accompanied her, the two friends setting out early in
the morning, and remaining in the wood until dusk. Once or twice after these
excursions Mrs. M. thought her daughter’s manner rather peculiar; she seemed
languid and dreamy, and as it has been expressed, “different from herself,” but these
peculiarities seem to have been thought too trifling for remark.