Reproduction of the original: Old Lady Mary by Margaret Oliphant

You can be little. You can be old. You can be a lady. But you don’t have to be a little old lady! We’ve all seen her, hunched forward, her hair tucked neatly under a plastic rain bonnet. She’s clutching expired coupons, or discussing her latest health problems over lunch. She’s a little old lady . . . and she's coming your way at 2 mph. Little old ladies have elastic waistbands on all their slacks. They save rubber bands, remember fifteen-cent McDonald’s hamburgers, and have never seen a public rest room that was clean enough. How Not to Become a Little Old Lady is for any woman who is proud to have escaped little old ladyhood—or those in danger of slipping into it. Lighthearted and affectionately funny, it also includes charming illustrations from Adrienne Hartman.

In the vast majority of ghost stories, the reader's gateway into the tale is the point of view of the person being haunted. In Margaret Oliphant's unique take on the genre, however, we're granted both sides of the story. This tale of a mysteriously missing will is enlivened (so to speak) by the "voice" of the deceased woman of the title, Old Lady Mary.