The daily crescent. [volume] ([New Orleans, La.]) 1848-1851, 1849-01-23
Bo3's Christmas Gale.
THE HAUNTED MAN AND THE GHOSTS
BARGAIN. A FANCY FOR CHRIsTMAs-TIME.
BY CHARLES DICKENS.

| sob dear no, SIR cried Milly, giving it back.
| again. ''Worse and worse Couldn't be dreamed
| Of"
Such a stad matter-offact housewife she was,
and so unruffled by the momentary haste of this re-
lection, that, instant afterwards she was tidilv
| picking up few leaves which had strayed between
her scissors and her apron, when she had arranged
F, the holly.
| Finding, when she rose from her stopping posture,
| that MIR. Redaw was still regarding her with doubt
and establishment, she quietly repeated Looking
about the while, for any other fragments that might
| have escaped her observation.
"Oh dear, no, sir, He said that of all the world
he would not be known TO you, or receive help from
| yOu-though he is student in your class. | have
| made no terms of secresy with you, but trust 10
your honor completely"
fWhy did he say so -
Indeed can't tell, sir, said Milly, after think
ing little, because | am not at all clever, YOU
know; and wanted to be useful to him in making
things neat and comfortable about him, and en-
plOyed myself that way. But know he is poor
and lonely, and think he is somehow neglected,
too. How dark it is ~
The room had darkened more and more There
was heavy gloom and shadow gathering behind
the Chemists chair.
"What more about him % he asked
" He is engaged to be married, when he can afford
it, said Milly, land is studying think to qualify
himself to earn living. have seen, a long time,
that he has studied hard and denied himself much.
How very dark it is -
" 1t 8 turned colder, too,' said the old man, rub
bling his hands. ''There Is a chill and dismal feel
ing In the room. Where 5 my son William Will
liam, my boy, turn the lamp and rouse the fire -
Milly's voice resumed like quiet music very soft
ly played:
g. He muttered in his broken sleep yesterday af-
ternoon, after talking to me this was to herself
about some one dead, and some great wrong done,
that could never be forgotten, but whether to him
or to another person, do MT know. Not by him,
am sure"
'And, in short, Mrs. William, you see which
she would MT say herself, Mr.. Redlaw, if she
TO stop here till the new year after this one" said
Mr.. William, coming up TO him to speak in his ear,
6 has done him worlds of good Bless you, worlds
OF good! All at home just the same as ever-my
father made snug and comfortabe-not crumb
of litter to be found in the house, if you TO
offer fifty pound ready money for it-Nlrs. William
apparently never out of the way-yet Mrs. William
backwards and forwards, backwards and forwards,
up and down, up and down, mother to him.
The room turned darker and COLDER and the
gloom and shadow gathering behind the chair
heavier.
Not content with this, sir, Mrs. William goes
and finds, this very night, when she coming
home, (why it's not above couple of hours
ago. creature more like young wild beast than
young child shivering upon doorstep. What
does Mrs. William do, but brings it home to dry it,
and feed it, and keep it. till old Bounty of flood
dHu Hdiiiitl given away VII SHilsti1dS
If it ever felt fire BEFORE it's as much as it ever
did, for it's sitting in the old Lodge chimney, staring
OF if its ravenOus eyes would never shut
again. It's sitting there, at least" said Mr.. Will
Ham, correcting himself, on reflection, unless it's
bolted"
Heaven keep her happy" said the Chemist,
aloud, g and you too, Philip, and you, William |
must consider what to do in this. ! may desire to
see this student, I'll not detain you longer now.
Good night
81 thankee, sr-I thankee !' said the old man,
" for Mouse, and for William, and for myself
Where's my son William William, you take the
lantern and go on first, through them long dark
passages, you did last year and the year before
Ha ha! remember-though Pm eighty-seven
Lord, keep my memory green. It's very good
prayer, Mr.. Redlaw, that of the learned gentleman
in the peaked beard, with ruff round his neck
hangs up, second on the right above the paneling,
in what used to be, afore our ten poor gentlemen
committed, our great dinner hall. Lord, keep my
memory greenn It's very good and pious, sir
Amen, Amen i"
As they passed out and shut the heavy door,
which, however carefully withheld, fired long
train of laundering reverberations when it shut at
last, the room turned darker.
As he fell amusing in his chair alone the healthy
holly withered on the wall, and dropped-dead
branches.
As the gloom and shadow thckened behind him,
in that place where had been gathering so darkly
it took, by slow degrees-or out of il there came,
by some unreal unsubstantial process, not to be
traced by any human sense-an awful likeness of
himself!
Ghastly and cold, coloress in its leaden face and
hands, but with his features, and his bright eyes,
and his grizzed hair, and dressed in the gloomy
shadow of his dress, it came into its terrible ap-
pearance of existence, mOtloness, without sound
As he leaned his arm upon the elbow of his chair,
Illuminating before the fire, tleaned upon the chair
back, close above him. with its appalling COPY of
his IopkinU Iphera his fpoa lopLaI nd boar
ing the expression his face bore.
This, them was the Something that had passed
and gone already. This the dread companion
of the haunted man.
1t took for some moments no more apparent heed
of him, than he of it. The Christmas Waits were
playing somewhere in the distance, and, though
his houghtfulness, he seemed to listen to the music
1t seemed to listen too.
At length he spoke; without moving or lifting
up his face.
Here again! ~ he said.
Here again." replied the Phantom
" see you in the fire" said the haunted man
" hear you in music, in the wind, in the dead
stiffness of the night
The Phantom moved its head, asserting.
why do you come to haunt me thus?''
- come as ] am called, - replied the Ghost.
No. Unbdden, exclaimed the Chemist.
Unbidden be it," said the Spectre. cit is
enough. am here
Hitherto the light of the fire had shone Oh the
two faces-if the dread lineaments behind the chair
might be called face-both addressed towards it,
as at first, and neither looking at the other But,
now, The haunted man turned suddenly, and stared
upon the Ghost. The Ghost, as sudden in its mo-
ton, passed to before the chair, and stared him.
The living man, and the animated image of him
self dead, might have looked, the one upon the
other. An awful survey in lonely and remote
part of an empty old pile of building, on winter
night, with the loud wind going by upon its jour
ney of mystery-whence, or whittier, no man
knowing since the world began-and the stars, in
unlmaginable millions, gittering through it, from
eternal space, where the worlds bulk is as a |
grain, and its hoary age is infancy.
Look upon me - said the Spectre. I" / am he,
neglected in my youth, and miserably poor, who |
srove and suffered and still strove and suffered,
until hewed out knowledge from the mine where
it was buried, and made rugged steps thereof. for
my worn feet to rest and rise on
81 am that man. returned the Chemist.