Vermont daily transcript. [volume] (St. Albans, Vt.) 1868-1870, 1868-06-13

yroan. Ii was u single groan, and
then all was still. But it was such
groan as no one utters twice, and he
who hears 1t never wishes to hear it
again. He felt it his duty to rush into
the house but dared not. After long
hesitation he went his way, speculating
whether the widow had murdered her
idiot son or had been murdered 10y
him. And when he saw them both
come quietly in to the village the next
morning he doubted first his eyes
and next his memory.
But the same errand again brought
him past chat lonely house few nights
later. Again he heard the nine O'Clock
bell as he approached the house and
again, as he was opposite the house,
that dreadful groan. The next night
he walked out with ncighbor, 80 TIM
ing his steps that when near the house
both heard that mortal sound. Both
were certain that it came from the
house.
Three went out, and five, and fifteen
and thirty. All heard the groan; and
nil agreed that it was exact to its time
TO a quarter of Il minute. Old captain
Hardcastle said that if he were shut up
in hold as dark as midnight, he could
tell within ten minutes when the time
for his eleven o'clock came, but he
couldn't keep time with Il ghost. One
guessed the spirits heard the bell. The
agent stopped the bell one night, but the
proan was heard as usual. And it was
not a similar groan but the same
groan, repeated every night. No ear
could tell any difference not made by
the direction and force of the wind.
Some wondered whether it had been
repeated every night since poor Jones
''broke his neck" Others said, that
if they were the widow, rather than
live a month in that house they would
confess the murder and be hanged.
One night the lawyer and the doctor
of Ludlow both young men, went out
quite early. They went into the house
and "wanted to wait till the moon
rose.n The widow gave them scant wei
come; she had not forgotten Ludlow
prudence, and she always cOnjectureo
that her present guests had had thei1
share in that affair. Without a candle
she sat there stretched her slIinky hand,
to the blaze, for the night was chill
The gawy boy, who would be nearly
seven feet long if Strengthened out, ant
who seemed to have acquired his longi
tude at tie expense of his latitude a. i
put through a rolling mill, sat there il
kinks and silence. They heard TIN
factory bell, they heard cricket, the.
heard lusty rat, but they heard III
groan. At half-past nine they went on
to large shivering impatient GROVE
that had missed their grOan and fel
misused. In an instant more the groal
was heard in all its perfection. Gu
friends hurried back to the house to in
ulire whether the lawyer had droppe'
a glove. The widow was making up
trundlebed that had been lurking un
suspected by them beneath the large on
in the darkest corner of the room. The
admired this contrivance for economic
ing space. Could the widow move
easily? She ran it in and drew it on
again By this time the lawyer ha
found his glove in his pocket and agai
they wished the widow good night.
Meanwhile the outsiders had hear
the last was exact.
81 have found" says the lawyc
that Ludlow has expended at leas
three hundred miles travel on foot, an
all the night,-and hundred houl
loating by these old bars just to hea
that women draw out her trundle- be
for that Jacob's-ladder IDIOT
"And let me recommend YOU" adde
the doctor, 'when you find anythin
you cannot explain, not to jump to tn
conclusion that it is supernatural. 1t j
more than prObable--it is ccrtan-tha
If you knew enough, you could find
physical cause for every physical e1
fect.n
And SO they all went home and wen
to bed
And the next spring the grass grey
again around the WidoWs'S bars.