'Oh, Whistle, and I'll Come to You, My Lad'

"'Oh, Whistle, and I'll Come to You, My Lad'"
1904 illustration by James McBryde
Author	M. R. James
Country	United Kingdom
Language	English
Genre(s)	Horror
Publisher	Edward Arnold
Media type	Print (hardback)
Publication date	1904

"'Oh, Whistle, and I'll Come to You, My Lad'" is a ghost story by British writer M. R. James, included in his collection Ghost Stories of an Antiquary (1904). The story is named after a 1793 poem of the same name penned by Robert Burns.^[1]

Plot[]

Discovery[]

Parkins, the protagonist, is a young Cambridge University professor on holiday in the town of Burnstow (a fictionalized version of Felixstowe, Suffolk), on the southeast coast of England. He resides at The Globe Inn for the duration of his stay, and has promised to investigate the grounds of a nearby preceptory for a colleague during his stay, with view to his colleague further exploring the site the following summer.

While investigating a cavity within what he believes to be the base of a ruined Templar platform or altar for his colleague, Parkins finds an ancient bronze whistle. Parkins pockets his find and returns to the inn, noting as he walks along the desolate beach that a "shape of indistinct personage" appears to be making great efforts to catch up with him in the distance, to no avail.

Inspection and calling[]

After an evening meal at the inn, Parkins inspects the whistle while alone in his room. First clearing the hard-packed soil from the item, he then discovers two inscriptions on it. On one side is inscribed:

The inscription on the other side reads "QUIS EST ISTE QUI UENIT". Parkins recognizes this second inscription as Latin ("Quis est iste qui venit?"), translating it as "Who is this who is coming?".^{[n 1]} He is unable to figure out the first inscription on the whistle, which he then blows twice.^{[n 2]} Upon blowing the whistle, Parkins becomes aware of a sudden surge of wind outside his window as a vision of a "wide, dark expanse at night with a fresh wind blowing" enters his mind. In the middle of this vision is a solitary figure.

Illustration of the nightmare Parkins experiences of himself desperately fleeing an apparition along the beach in the hours after he blew the bronze whistle

First night[]

That night, Parkins dreams of a man desperately fleeing from a "bobbing, black object" along a shoreline in a state of extreme fear. In the distance, the pursuing apparition moves in a strange manner and with incredible speed. The man repeatedly clambers over high groynes in desperation before collapsing to the ground in sheer exhaustion as the object the man had been fleeing reveals itself as a figure in "pale, fluttering draperies". Each time Parkins closes his eyes, the scenario progresses, although the vision immediately vanishes when he opens his eyes. Realising he is unable to dispel the visions, Parkins decides to read himself to sleep, although when he attempts to light a match, he hears the sound of scurrying on his floor in the direction away from his bed, which he believes may be the sound of rats fleeing. Parkins then reads himself to a sound sleep, with the candle beside his bed still burning when he is woken by staff at the inn the following morning.

Second day[]

As he prepares to leave the inn, Parkins is informed by a maid that both beds in his room appeared to have been slept in. The maid had already made both beds, explaining the sheets on the bed he had not slept in were "crumpled and thrown about all ways". Parkins theorises he may have disturbed the quilt and sheets while unpacking. He then leaves the inn to play golf with an acquaintance, whom he informs of the whistle he had found at the preceptory the previous day. This acquaintance, who appears to have strong anti-Catholic sentiments, informs Parkins of his belief the whistle—which he had left in his inn room—may have belonged to Papists, and he should be wary of keeping and using the object.

Returning to the inn, both encounter a terrified, hyperventilating boy running from the inn who explains he has just seen a white, faceless figure behind an unlit window of a room at the inn. Both placate the boy, and resolve to investigate the matter, believing initially the child may have been the victim of a cruel prank. Upon returning to his locked room, Parkins realises that the description of the windows of the room given by the boy could only mean the child had seen the apparition in his room. He then notices that the sheets upon the room's second, unused bed are again twisted and contorted.

Second night[]

Inside Parkins's room that evening, he shows the whistle to his golfing partner, asking if he can decipher the second inscription, although his acquaintance is unable to do so. This acquaintance then leaves the room. Parkins then realises that the night ahead may be moonlit and that, as no curtains cover the windows of his room, his sleep may be disturbed by moonlight. To prevent this, he fashions a partition between his bed and the window using a rug, a stick and his umbrella. Parkins then reads for a short while before blowing out the candle beside his bed and falling asleep.

Approximately one hour later, Parkins is woken by the sound of his improvised device collapsing to the floor and moonlight shining on his face. He then hears a movement in the empty bed across his room. As he ponders the possibility of rats or other vermin being the source of this sound, he realises the "rattling and shaking" sounds could not be caused by rodents. Parkins then sees a figure sit up on the bed, causing him to jump from his own bed in the direction of the window, to retrieve his cane. As he does so, the "personage in the empty bed" moves into a position above the door, with arms outspread. This apparition remains stationary in the shadows for several moments as Parkins's fear escalates. The apparition then moves in a stooping posture in his direction as the draped arms feel about the room, leading Parkins to quickly determine the spectre may be blind.

The apparition then darts towards Parkins's bed, feeling about the pillow and sheets for his body. Realising he is no longer in the bed, the apparition moves towards the window, into the moonlight, allowing Parkins to see the veiled form clearly. The distorted face and the arms of the apparition are wrapped inside linen, with the arms outstretched, and the apparition continues to search the room for him.

One corner of the draperies veiling the form brushes across Parkins's face, causing Parkins to elicit a cry of fear. This cry reveals his general location to the apparition, which moves rapidly in his direction. Parkins backs against the open window of his room, screaming repeatedly as the face of the apparition is "thrust close into his own". At this moment, Parkins's friend kicks the door to his room open, just in time to see the apparition advancing towards Parkins. As he advances, the apparition disappears, and the linens which had veiled the form crumple to the floor. The following day, the whistle is thrown far into the sea.^[3]

Adaptations[]

The BBC has filmed the story twice as Whistle and I'll Come to You, firstly in 1968 in a version directed by Jonathan Miller and starring Michael Hordern, and again in 2010 starring John Hurt and Sophie Thompson.

Notes[]

References[]

External links[]

• An omnibus collection of James's short fiction at Standard Ebooks
• Full text of Oh, Whistle, and I'll Come to You, My Lad steve-calvert.co.uk
• Oh, Whistle, and I'll Come to You, My Lad, narrated by Michael Hordern
• Fifteen-minute drama: Oh, Whistle, and I'll Come to You, My Lad as broadcast on BBC Radio 4
• British Theatre Guide review of stage performances of Oh, Whistle, and I'll Come to You, My Lad
• Oh Whistle and I'll Come to You My Lad public domain audiobook at LibriVox