"Oh, Whistle, and I'll Come to You, My Lad" by M. R. James
"Oh, Whistle, and I'll Come to You, My Lad," a ghost story by M. R. James, explores themes of the supernatural and the conflict between rationality and belief in the unexplained. Set in the context of St. James College, Cambridge, the narrative follows Parkins, a biology professor who is skeptical of ghostly phenomena and focused on a golfing vacation. His encounter with an ancient whistle, discovered at the remains of a Knights Templars monastery, triggers a series of unsettling events that challenge his principles. As he mistakenly invokes a spectral presence by blowing the whistle, Parkins experiences increasingly terrifying occurrences, including visions of a ghostly figure and disturbances in his hotel room. The story culminates in a confrontation with this supernatural force, which preys on fear and drives individuals to madness. Ultimately, Parkins is left questioning his previously firm beliefs about the world, having faced a daunting and inexplicable reality. This tale is emblematic of James's signature style, which blends scholarly characters with unsettling folkloric elements, making it a compelling exploration of fear and the unknown.
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"Oh, Whistle, and I'll Come to You, My Lad" by M. R. James
First published: 1904
Type of plot: Horror
Time of work: The nineteenth century
Locale: The east coast of Great Britain
Principal Characters:
Parkins , a professor of biology, a disbeliever in the supernaturalRogers , another Cambridge professorColonel Wilson , a fellow golfer and retired Indian army officer
The Story
The title is a line of an old folk song, but a horror, not a lover, comes to the whistle in this story. The introduction occurs in the dining hall of St. James College in Cambridge, where the dons discuss their plans for the coming short vacation. Parkins, a serious young professor of biology, who plans a golfing holiday in Burnstow, is offended when Rogers offers to share his room and "keep the ghosts off." Parkins, on principle, believes only in the scientifically explicable. However, he agrees to check the remains of a monastery of the Knights Templars for the antiquarian, Professor Disney.
The story proper occupies the three days and two nights after Parkins has been installed in a room with two beds at the Globe Inn. His first day's golf with Colonel Wilson is trying, and Parkins chooses to walk home alone along the seashore. Near it, he stumbles into a circle of mounds that are the remains of the monastery. While making a plan, he finds, near the altar, a space without turf and under it a rectangular cavity, empty except for a bronze whistle. On it, "Who is this who is coming?" is engraved in Latin. Although the shore had been empty, Parkins, walking home with the whistle in his pocket, sees a vague figure following him. At midnight, a shape is still on watch outside the hotel. When Parkins blows the whistle, the window is forced open by a great gust of wind that soughs through the inn. Sleepless, Parkins seems to hear another person tossing and turning nearby; closing his eyes, Parkins envisions a man hunted along the beach by a figure in pale draperies. As the professor lights the candle, something scurries away from his bed. The next morning, the maids note that both beds have been slept in.
At golf, the colonel remarks that the wind of the evening before sounded as though it had been whistled for—a widespread folk belief that Parkins dismisses as superstition. Back at the inn, the bootboy greets them in terror; he has seen a figure in white, "not a right person," waving from Parkins's window. Though the room was locked, the spare bed, made that morning, is a mass of twisted bedclothes.
That night, bright moonlight shows Parkins a figure sitting up in the empty bed. As he rushes to the window, something gets between him and the door, then gropes its way across the room, feels the empty bed, and moves toward the professor, who leans farther and farther out to escape from the sightless face pressing toward him. The colonel breaks in and sees the figures struggling at the window. Suddenly there is only Parkins—and the twisted sheets.
The next day, Rogers arrives; the three agree that the colonel will throw the whistle into the sea. The bedclothes are burned. The power of the evil thing that answered the whistle lay apparently in its ability to inspire fear, suicide, and madness.
After this experience, not only does Professor Parkins admit the possibility of the supernatural; he is also nervous of linen that appears to have a human shape.