The Shunned House

After I glimpsed a kind of thin yellowish shimmering exhalation rising from the nitrous pattern toward the yawning fireplace I spoke to my uncle about the matter. He smiled at this odd conceit but it seemed that his smile was tinged with reminiscence. Later I heard that a similar notion entered into some of the wild ancient tales of the common folk -- a notion likewise alluding to ghoulish wolfish shapes taken by smoke from the great chimney and queer contours assumed by certain of the sinuous tree-roots that thrust their way into the cellar through the loose foundation-stones. . . .