Cooper's Clarksburg register. [volume] (Clarksburg, Va. [W. Va.]) 1851-1861, 1852-08-04


materials on small table in the summer
house. and took away the candles. We
remained outside, with the pedlar among
us In low, solemn voice, he began to
chant the following lines
"What riseth slow from the ocean caves
And the stormy surfi
The phantom pale, sets his blackened foot
On tho fresh green turf!"
Then raising his voice, solemnly, he
said:
You asked to see your friend, Fran.
els Villers, who was drowned, three years
ago, off the coast of South America
what do you see ?''
:" see, replied the student, ga white
light arising near the window but it has
no form, 1t is like an uncertain cloud"
We, the spectators. remained profound
ly silent.
care you afraid 2" asked the merchant
III a loud voice.
81 am not. replied the student. firm
ly.
After moments silence. the pedlar
stamped three times on the ground, and
sang:
" And the phantom white, whose clay-eold face
Was okco fair,
Dries with his shrOud-his clinging vest,
And his tea-tosscd hair"
Once more the solemn question:
"You who would see revealed the mys-
teries of the tomb--what do you see
now ?''
The student answered in calm voice,
but like that of man describing things
as they DnSScd before him
"I sec the cloud taking the form of
phantom, its head is covered with long
veil-it stands STILL"
Are you afraid 2"
al am not u
We looked at each other in horror
stricken silence, while the merchant rais-
ing his arms above his head, chanted in
a sepulchral voice.
" And the phantom said, he raised from the
lie shall know me in sooth [wave,
will go to my friend, gay, smiling and fond,
AS in our first days of YOUTH"
"What do you SEQ % said he.
al see the phantom advance he lifts
his vcl-'tis Francis Villers! He ap.
proachcs the tablc--hc writes tits his
sigpA,re !"
care you afraid %
A fearful moment of silence enSued !;
then the student replied. but in an altered
voice
- am not !"
With strange AMI frantic gestures. the
merchant then sang:
" And the phantom said to the movking seer,
I come from the South;
Put thy hand on my hund-thy heart on my heart
Thy mouth OH my MOUTH"
What do you see %
He comes--he arproachcs-hc pur-
sues me--he stretches out his arms-he
will have me help! help save me -
care you afraid nor ?" asked the mer.
chant in mocking voice.
A piercing cry, and then stif1ed groan
were the only reply to this terrible ques-
ton.
"Help that rash you p said the mer-
chant bitterly ~ have, l think, won
the wager; but it is sufficient for me to
have given him a lesson. Let him keep
his money, and be wiser for the future" 2"
He walked rapidly away. We opened
| the door Of the summer-housc, and found
the student in couvulsious. A paper sign
cd =" Francis Villirrs," was on the table.
AS soon as the students senses were res
torcd, he asked vchrmently, where was
the vile sorcercr who had subjected him
TO such horrible ordcal-hc would kill
him. He sought him through the inn. in
vain and then with the speed of a mad
man, he dashed off across the fields in
pursuit of him-and wc never saw either
Of them again. That, children, is my
Ghost Story.
An how is it, uncle, that after thai.
you don't believe in ghosts?" said the
first time l heard it.
Because, my boy" replied my uncle,
neither the student nor the merchant
ever returned. and the forty-five guneas
belonging to me and the other travellers,
continued equally invisible. These two
swindlers carried them of, after having
acted farce. which we, like ninnies, be-
Ilieve1 IN ha rpal - HoUSebOlH WOrls