The States and Union. [volume] (Ashland, Ohio) 1868-1872, 1870-06-29
. .(From Ballou's Magazine.) n
The Ghost Of the Golden Lion.
BY y. p. DARLING.

How could Mr.. McSpilter go to
sleep in such racket? Why, just
the creaking of the rusty old sign,
which hung directly under his window,
was enough to drive nervous man
crazy. sounded so much like gih-
bet, with a. malefactor hanging upon
it, in chains, or at least Mr.. McSpilter
thought it sounded very. much like it.
He wasn't quite sure; having never
seen maletactor hanging in chains,
of course he had never had an .oppor-
tunity to listen to the creaking of the
chains but the sound made him feel
exceedingly nervous, and so his eyes
popped open again, and-and, well,
the portrait 'yinked again.
81 consider her conduct highly i'm
proper" muttered McSpilter. mo
respectable woman would wink to an
entire stranger, Tn sure" And then
he shut his eyes tight and turned over
with his face to the wall, and once
more tried to crawl into the arms of
Morpheus, O e a4H..- f.tuoi- ,. /.
Mr.. McSpilter rolled all over the
bed, and kicked the clothes off iihe-
cause he was too warm, and then pull
ed them on again because he was too
cold, and he laid on his right side and
his left. side, and then he laid on his
back and then on his stomach, and he
thought SONS of standing on his head,
but concluded not to, on account of
the lady being in the room. McSpil-
ter always tried to behave himself in
the presence of ladies -...s..i...
81" He had tried lying on all sides but
one, and was Just debating with him.
self whether it wouldn't be good idea
to turn himself wrong side out and
lay on his inside, when the clock
in the steeple struck two, and his
eyes popped open again, and--no, the
portrait did not wink. He wished it
had, for, after all, there was some
thing rather cheerful in that = .rH.
The fact was, Mr. McSpilter was
lying with his face to the door when
his eyes popped open, and just at that
instant tremendous blast of wind
struck the old house. 1t made the
whole building rock. What a rat
Ting. roaring, shrieking and howling
there wasl
"What a night this would be for a
ghost said AIcSpilter, and just. then
the door began to swing ON its hinges.
- ".Ta-ta-take it all jback-neyer said
It," stammered McSpilter, while, his
eyes tried to jump out of their sockets,
and his hair became so stiff that 1t
stuck right through the pillow upon
which his head was lying. ...
The door swung noiselessly open,
and a form clothed all in white glided
into the room. McSpilter. noticed
that it was a female ghost, because
she had her hair parted in the middle,
and wore no whiskers-not even the
slightest sign of beard had she.
The ghost advanced slowly toward
the. fire, without looking either to the
right or left. Then she put out her
thin, transparent hands toward the
blaze, first one and then the other,
as if to warm them. -.,, ..- .-..-.-.
.r 'tPye always heard" muttered Nc
Splitter, '.that ghosts were rather cold
blooded, or no blooded, and | suppose
she's just come in here TO warm her
self :, and then his teeth began to
chatter and he couldn't say any more.
The ghost stood there warming her
hands forrat least five minutes, and as
she had her back toward McSpilter, he
wasn't bit afraid to watch her. And
after she had, thoroughly warmed her
hands, she folded one over the other,
and raising. her head seemed to be
looking at the portrait over the man
tel.
McSpiIter wondered if the ghost
was relative of the beautiful woman
whose portrait she seemed to be gaz-
ing at, but being modest man, he
thought he wouldn't ask her. .-s
He laid there staring at the ghost,