Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1875-08-20

bors and pretended 10 hunt but his real
object was 10 prevent the others from find
ing the body, and to divert suspicion from
himself. On the first night Of the hunt he
persuaded the others to follow his direc-
tions, and directed them away from the
tree. Aner dark he took the body from
the hollow tree, buried It in a deep hole
made by its upturned root, and built big
fire over the spot to prevent disturbance of
the soil being noticed, and 10 destroy the
scent, so that neither dogs nor other ami
mails could find IL. He never had any rea-
son 10 think his crime was suspected but
he could not endure to live near the scene
of IL, and in less than two years afterwards,
moved away. Every time he went through
wachusett woods, by day or by night, he
,saw the child running before him with her
little hand on her head, and calling her
father TO come and save her from being
killed and he wondered none OF the
Keyes family ever saw her. Every eve-
ming he heard the wall of the insane moth
er, calling her child to come home, as she
stood at the edge of the woods with her
white hair streaming in the wind, seeming,
less, even, than the little ghost, like a be-
ing of this world and he wondered the
mother could not hear her child, as he did,
answer back every time she called. And
then the murderer fell back upon his bed
and died.
The story of the lost child is not a fiction.
The writer, when a child, first heard 1t
from his mother, as received from her
xu1,n
miles 10 participate in the great child-hunt
on Wachusett in 1855. Some years afler-
ward, when a student, being moved, on
one of his spring vacations, 10 make a pill
grimage 10 the mountain, he arrived, Just
at night, at an old house on The eastern
slope, where his challenge for hospitality
was generously honored, and where, dur
ing the evening, he was entertained with
recital of the story, with many additional
details, and the sequel, substantially as
herein given, by his hostess, an aged lady,
who was born and had always lived in
Princeto n and who was in sonie way either
by blood or marriage, not now remember
ed, related TO the Keyes family. The old
house stood on the same spot where the
parents oi Lucy Keyes lived and died, and
where she was born. The story Is a well
known tradition in Princeton; and doubt
less there are great numbers of people in
Worcester County still living, who have
heard it, as did the writer, from persons
only one remove from actual particlpators
in the great hunt. The main facts of the
child's mysterious disappearance are very
briefly told in "Whitney's History of
Worcester County" published in 1875, and
copied almost Uerbdtin, into both Russell's
and Hanaford's Histories of Princeton.
Whitney wrote belote the sequel, as con-
timed in the confession of Litilejohn, was
known and, in fact, refore it was made
and adopted the Indian theory as the most
probable solution OF the mystery. The
story is also alluded 10 in poem written
by Prof. Erastus Everett for the Princeton
Centennial Celebration in 1859, and pub
lshed with the historical address of Hon.
Charles T. Russell, and other papers relat-
ing 10 the celebration, among which, in an
appendix 10 the poem, is a very interest
ing note by Mr.. Russell. giving the result
OF some correspondence with persons at
Deerfield and elsewhere about the confess
sion.-Old and Nep.