The true northerner. [volume] (Paw Paw, Mich.) 1855-1920, 1872-04-19

gesticulated with her hands. and became
quite unintelligible. Mrs. Adds begged
her to repeat what she had said, which
she did in precisely the same manner,
but beyond the words, bad man and bad
house, she could gather nothing.
IL made her feel uncomfortable, and
as she went up hill again she regarded
her neat little abode with a puzzled
wonder. Having an errsnd to do at the
nearest store, which was kept by an
Italian, in tent on Pacific street i'm
those days. she sent Nancy on to the
Younger children. When she retured,
carrying her few little parcels, tsilight
had set in, and the great misty columns
of fog that sometimes sweep i'm from the
sea were making the landscape very
dreary. Still, Us she climbed the hill
from the city side, she could see her
own door quite plainly, and in it the
three children at play.
Not they only. There was fourth
figure standing with them-a Spanish
girl of slender form. She had serapa
thrown over her shoulders, and was
watching them with slightly dropping
head.
"That must be the lady I" exclaimed
Mrs. Adds to herself with sudden con-
viction. How yonng she looks p
quite girl"
In her excitement, Mrs. Adds stun.
bled over stone and dropped her paper
of sugar. Stopping to pick it up, her
eyes were withdrawn from the lady for
an instant, and when she looked up she
could not see her anywhere. The chill.
dren were playing on in the porch, as
before. In her haste to gain the house,
she lost her breath.
"Where's the lady" she inquired of
her children. In the parlor ?"
The little ones looked around, as if
searching for the lady to answer the
question.
"The lady is not here, mamma" said
Nancy.
But she was WITH you a minute
ago.
They seemed surprised. One and all
declared the lady had not been there
that evening. Minnie, the second child,
said she had not played as much as the
; others, and must have seen her had she
come. But Mrs. Adds had the evil
dence of her own eyesight and went to
look vague feeling of something
strange was beginning TO dawn upon
her.
The lady was not in the garden, back
or front, as might be seen at a glance.
Mrs. Adds went into the different
rooms indoors, and she was not there
: Where lay the mystery? In what did
, it consist?
i. From that night a conviction Of some
f thing Notwithstanding to be avoided
| and feared-stt upon her. Day by day
, il deepened, like a darken;ng cloud.
5 1t was extremely painful to acknowl
{ edge to herself that this curious and in
2 applicable thing had greater power
, over her, in depressing her heart and
paralyzing her spirits, than the severe
| sorrow that had passed over her life,
= leaving her alone in the world with its
/ troubles.
A vague fear of some i'll to come
t haunted her and yet she had not the
= courage 10 confess her weakness, and
: beg Mr.. Evans to find them another
S home. Whenever the children named
+. " the lady," she shuddered, and yet
{ she could not reason clearly on the
r subject, or decide sensibly what foun
g dation she had for misgiving. She be-
4 came daily more oppressed by brooding
D over this very uncertainty, and the
! shadowy dread that haunted her.
One thing she observed; that the
e children never now spoke of seeing the
r lady but in the little red play room.
Whenever she appeared TO them (if APP.
/ pear she did, and it was not all delusion
t on their part it was always there. The
, singular circumstance was, that they
; had no fear; and whether they really
f believed that they saw the lady, one oil
: real flesh and blood Mrs. Adds did not
2 know. She would not talk to them
4. about it.
' Thus the time went on, and October
/ came in. One day she had been down
/, in st. Annis Valley, and was toiling
| back upward after her long journey
over the s-nd-hills. CHANGING to the
house when she came in view of it, she
/ saw one Of their good friends, Mr.
Brown, in the porch with the children
: He had Willy in his arms, and the
5 two girls were jumping and talking by
his side.
5 There's mammal they cried.
I " Mammals come back"
2 In that moment the strange and
painful doubts were lost sight of by
in her turn, and quickened her weary
, steps.
Suddenly her heart stood still as
| though it were turned TO stone. Pass
ing lightly out at the door behind the
f group already there, came the figure oil
= the Spanish girl, and stood among them
5 so close that their garments seemed to
touch but no one noticed her or APP
peared to mark her presence. She
i, leaned forward anxiously and shaded
e her face with her hand as she watched,
. looking earnestly down toward and be
: yord the hill. For an instant Mrs. Ad-
:. dis seemed to lose sight and sense, and
; when she looked again the figure had
q gone.
"Wa. any one with you here min
( ute ago?' she asked Mr.. Brown.
"There's no one here but me, Mrs
g Adds; me and the children. How il
you look. Your long walk las fatigueo
=. YOU"
She said no more. 1t was on the til
: Of her tongue to tell him all, but she