Study of Autumn Leaves, 1896 painting by Louis Grube.
"The Sweeper" is a short ghost story written by the British author A.M. Burrage under the pseudonym of Ex-Private X. It was first published in 1931 as part of the anthology Someone in the Room. It is included in the 1983 anthology Roald Dahl's Book of Ghost Stories.
The story concerns a young woman named Tessa who is employed as a companion by the elderly Miss Ludgate. Although she is not usually generous, Miss Ludgate always gives very generously to any beggars who come to her door. She is also convinced that she will die in the autumn, is troubled by falling autumn leaves and especially by the sound of someone sweeping up fallen leaves at night.
Plot[]
Miss Ludgate is a woman of about 80 years of age. She lives in a large old country house called Billingdon Abbots. She has few relatives and those that she has seldom visit her. It has already been decided who will inherit Billingdon Abbots after Miss Ludgate dies so her relatives have little need to impress her. Most of Miss Ludgate's servants have been in her service for many years and are therefore also old. Wanting to have somebody young in the house, Miss Ludgate employs Tessa Winyard, the daughter of a country clergyman, as a full-time companion. Tessa is impressed by Billingdon Abbots. She is disappointed that she has not heard anything about the house having its own ghost.
Large numbers of homeless people often come to Billingdon Abbots. Although Miss Ludgate never gives money to charitable organizations and is unsympathetic to the poor families who live on her estate, beggars who come to her house are always given food or money. Tessa asks the housekeeper, Miss Finch, why this is so. Miss Finch replies, "Miss Ludgate has her own good reasons for doing this - or thinks she has."
Tessa begins working for Miss Ludgate in late summer. At the start of autumn, Miss Ludgate appears to be unhappy. She says that she may die in November of that year and, if she does not, she will die in November of the following year or the year after that. She asks Tessa if the leaves have fallen from the trees yet.
One night, Tessa hears the sound of someone sweeping up leaves outside. Miss Ludgate appears to be disturbed by the sound and by the fact that Tessa is listening to it. She asks Tessa to play the piano. She plays sufficiently loudly to drown out the sweeping sound. The following morning, Tessa is surprised to see a gardener sweeping up leaves. She asks him if all the leaves on the ground fell after his sweeping of the previous night. He replies that he does not work at night and neither do any of the other gardeners.
The following evening, Miss Ludgate goes to bed early. Tessa hears the sweeping sound again. She goes to an upstairs window to see who is in the garden. She has the strange feeling that there is something missing when she looks at the sweeper but cannot think what it is. She goes outside. The sweeper stops sweeping and looks at her. He is dressed in rags that appear to have been haphazardly scattered about his body. His face looks like that of a corpse. He is so thin that he is almost transparent. Tessa screams when she realizes what is missing. Although it is a bright moonlit night, the sweeper has no shadow.
The next thing Tessa knows, she is inside the house. Miss Finch is there to comfort her. She realizes at once what Tessa has seen. She asks Tessa where the sweeper was when she saw him. She replies that he was near the end of the path by the stable gate. Miss Finch tells Tessa that she need not fear the sweeper because he is only interested in Miss Ludgate. Reluctantly, she tells the young woman the whole story.
Fifteen years earlier, Miss Finch gave some food to a beggar who came to the house. Miss Ludgate saw that. She said that if the man wanted food, he would have to work for it. She told him to sweep all the fallen leaves from the entire length of the path and to come and see her when he had finished. The beggar was still at the start of the path when he collapsed. He told Miss Ludgate that he would come to see her when he finished sweeping and that she would need to be ready for him. He died immediately afterwards. In the autumn of the following year, Miss Finch heard the sound of sweeping at night, as did everyone else in the house. Miss Ludgate then ordered that generous donations had to be given to all beggars who came to her house. The sweeper has returned every year since to slowly continue his work. From what Tessa has said, it sounds as if he has now almost completed his task. Miss Finch says, "when he gets to the end - well, I would not like to be Miss Ludgate with all her money."
Three days later, Miss Ludgate dies.
See also[]
- "Playmates", another short story by A.M. Burrage included in Roald Dahl's Book of Ghost Stories