The Guests

(The author is unknown, because it was just in a folklore book of unknown authors or anonymous authors.)

A young man and his wife were on a trip to visit his mother. Usually they arrived in time for supper. But they had gotten a late start, and now it was getting dark. So they decided to look for a place to stay overnight and go on in the morning.
Just off the road, they saw a small house in the woods. "Maybe they rent rooms," the wife said. So they stopped to ask. An elderly man and woman came to the door. They didn't rent rooms, they said. But they would be glad to have them stay overnight as their guests. They had plenty of room, and they would enjoy the company. The old woman made coffee and brought out some cake, and the four of them talked for awhile. Then the young couple were taken to their room. They again explained that they wanted to pay for this, but the old man said he would not accept any money.
The young couple got up early the next morning before their hosts had awakened. On a table near the front door, they left an envelope with some money in it for the room. Then they went on to the next town. They stopped in a restaurant and had breakfast. When they told the owner where they had stayed, he was shocked. "That can't be," he said. "That house burned to the ground, and the man and the woman who lived there died in the fire."
The young couple could not believe it. So they went back to the house. Only now there was no house. All they found was a burned-out shell. They stood staring at the ruins trying to understand what had happened. Then the woman screamed. In the rubble was a badly burned table, like the one they had seen by the front door. On the table was the envelope they had left that morning.

Mystic Mo, this reminds me of a true story I heard - told by an American guy on TV some years ago. He had a recurring dream of a house - he knew its every nook and cranny. In his dream he would wander around the house and grounds freely. He had told his wife about the dream, but had never actually been in the house - so they both explained it away as his imagination. While on vacation in England, the man and his wife were taking a drive in the English countryside when he spotted the house. He stopped the car and went up to the door of the cottage. When the owner of the cottage answered the door - she had a shocked look on her face and exclaimed, "You are the ghost that haunts this house."...I also have a house I haunt - at least a recurring dream about a house. I wonder if this might explain some ghost stories?....

wow, now that was spooky

My six year old grandaughter loves ghost stories around the campfire. She will surely love this one. Thank you.

That is a cool thought, bigdog.