The Milan exchange. (Milan, Gibson County, Tenn.) 1874-1978, 1875-11-18

] llit liliils W sAZH DCA lltslA
threateningly, and vanishes.
1--we gone madi" cries Mr.. Guilfoil
shaking from head TO foot; "that's it
I'm mad!n
But at that instant the hag appear.
again.
"I1l see what it is" cries Mr.. Gull
foil. "If it's a trick, I'll"
But his threat is unuttered. He has
rushed forward and grasped the figure
or tried TO, and Overset the table; all he
touches is empty air; that and the cold
hard finished wall; the figure has nc
substance, and it is gone again.
Heaven help met" cries Mr.. Gull
foil. "The Halloween stories are all
true. I've seen my fate. That-old
woman, that virago, sitting up for me
with a hearth brush; and | can't avoid
it. It's written down-it's planned out
for me-predestined, and all that Oh,
why was | such a fool as TO SOW hemp
seedi"
Then, with the horrible cold chills
creeping up his back, and his hair on
end all over his head, Mr.. Guilfoil rush
ed into his bedroom and plunged, half
dressed, into bed.
The next morning one of his nephews
called. He found Mr.. Guilfoil in bed,
the floor covered with hemp-Seed and
the table overturned.
"Tm very poorly, Fred, ny boy"
says Uncle Guilfoil. "COme in, Fred
come in. Shakespeare never said a truer
thing than when he remarked that there
were
"'More things in heaven and earth, Horatio,
Than are dreamt of in your philosophy.
No, no. Fred, who did Melv see?"
"When?" asked Fred, slyly feeling
his uncle's pulse.
1" Hemp-seed / sow, you know" said
Uncle GuilfOi, slowly waving his hand
outside the bed-clothes. ''The trick,
you know. | hope it wasn't that un-
pleasant young Spriggins."
" You're not feverish, Uncle?" asked
Fred, now quite alarmed.
"Yes, a little said Uncle Guilfoil;
"but I'm not mad-any more than
Hamlet was when he saw his fathers
ghost. I've had a warning, that's all. :"
{" A warning of death?'' asked Fred.
"No, of marriage, " cried Uncle Gull
foil, with a groan. 81 sowed hemp-seed
last night, Fred, and | own | expected
to see nothing, or else a fine young wO-
man; but, my boy, | saw the most fiend-
ish, hideous virago shaking hearth
brush at me! was wide awake on my
feet, in my full senses, and there she
was! And you know | can't help it.
It's fate, Fred-fate."
And Uncle Guilfoil covered his head
with the bed-clothes, and Fred, with a
very long face, took his leave and ran at
full speed, first for the doctor and then
for his mother, whom he Mortified by
the intelligence that Uncle Guilfoil had
suddenly gone mad.
In an hour medical attendance and
anxious relatives surrounded the old
bachelor
The physician found Mr.. Guilfoil in
an extremely nervous condition, and
firm in his faith in the appearance of
the night before.
Z" A most terrible creature, Doctor"
he said, pathetically; "and as it is my
fate to marry her if live, hope this is
my last illness. think it very proba-
BILE that il is. can't live for such
fate.''
elem, " said the doctor, " did you see
the females face? / doubt that you
saw any thing, but did you think you
saw a face you knew?"
''She wore a red dress, a green
jacket, and yellow bonnet, and shook
a hearth-brOom at me-" said Mr.. Gull
foil. 81 think / should know her, if |
were to see her anywhere"
"Gay costume for an elderly fe-
male" " said the doctor.
"Yes, =" said Mr.. Guilfoil. 81 think
it was emblematical." D."
"Eh?n said the doctor.
Emblematic, - said Guilfoil. "When
| meet her, doubtless she will have
black silk dress and white puffed hair.
This fgure-I've thought it all out
had red for fury, green for jealousy,
yellow for melancholy. That's what |
believe; and the hearth-brush to de-
note
Nursing herwrath tOkeep itwarm,"
said the doctor.
Exactly" assented Mr.. Guilfoil.
elbow do YOU know some one has
not played a trick on you?" said the
doctor; this seems a mischievous mas
querade to me-
4" Doctor, said Mr.. Guilfoil, "when l
tried to grasp the form, my fingers
closed on air. No, it was a vision; and
if | live, I'm doomed; consequently, l
prefer to die"
Great was the CONSERVATION among
Mr.. GuilfOil'S relations-great the grief,
for he was much beloved; but there
seemed to be no doubt that their respect
ed relative had been seized with monO-
mania. The doctor said so; and, more
over, he was really quite i'll. " Nerves
upset altogether, " said the doctor; ''we
can't foresee the consequences" And
the lawyer agreed with the doctor, when,
being sent for to make Mr.. Guilfoil's
will, he desired to have it distinctly
stated that "not penny was be-
queathed to his wife,
But | believed you a bachelor, Mr..
Guilfoil,' said the lawyer.
"I may have viragO with hearth
brush in her hand, for my wife, if live
long enough, so put it in," said Mr..
Evidently he was in no condition to
make a will on that day, declared the
legal and medical gentlemen in concert.
Absurd as the cause appeared, the
efforts were serious. Day by day the
doctor came, shook his head, felt Mr..
Guilfoil's pulse, and wrote prescrip-
ton. Day by day Mr.. Guilfoil, whose
illness had begun with a slight nervous
headache, felt the effects of continual
confinement, and dose-taking, and the
amiable anxiety of his relatives concern
ing his mind. That he had seen
woman wearing odd raiment, shaking a
hearth-brush at him, on that dreadful
Halloween midnight, he was well as
sured. And it enraged him to think
that he should be supposed madman
in consequence.
He no longer desired to die, but rath-
er to live, in order that he might prove
to these people that what he had seen
was a veritable Halloween vision-a pre-
monition of future matrimonial misery
and he would have hailed the appear
anee of a virago with matrimonial in
tentions with Joy. One morning he