The Damned Thing

THE DAMNED THING

By Ambrose Bierce

Reprinted by permission. From "In the Midst of Life," copyright, 1898, by G. P. Putnam's Sons

I

By THE light of a tallow candle, which had been placed on one end of a rough table, a man was reading something written in a book. It was an old account book, greatly worn; and the writing was not, apparently, very legible, ...