The Manitowoc tribune. [volume] (Manitowoc, Wis.) 1866-1878, 1877-07-12


strange things" retorted Sarah, stoning
briskly away at her tin basinful of
raisins.
Sarah, what on earth 90 you mean %
Nothing" :" said Sarah, with grim sat
isfaction. Except that there's many
hereabouts as has seen the ghosts of
them as DIR. Stcrnbright has dissectcd. "
"What nonsense -
Well, miss, it stands to reason, " per-
sisted Sarah. 81 know 1 couldn't rest
in my grave, if I was dug up and cut to
pieces. Could you, now %
Some one has been practicing on
your credulity, said I, with dignity. :.
Well, only know whatpeoplc say,
replied Sarah ''And them doctors
don't pay no attention to neither law nor
order r'
But in spite of my external faithless-
ness, couldn't help thinking of what
Sarah had said, as the gray dusk loomed
over us, and the sad November winds
began to howl around the angles of the
old house.
1 had come intending to remain some
time. L resolved now to go home, as I
drew the Turkey red curtains and gave
the smoldering fire poke.
The night had set in bleak and stormy;
rain dashed in pattering gusts against
the windows the dear sprays of the
lcafess honcysucklc tapped, after a
sepulchral fashion, at tho lintcls, and
loose shutters banged like reports OF ar
tillery. Cousin Penny sat and drank
tea, with her feet on the fender. 1 tried
to read, but without success.
"Cousin," said I, suddenly, ''do you
believe in supernatural visitations? %
Supernatural gra1lnies p rctorted
Penny ed as hcve spend the night
with any number of corpscs, or i'll yon-
der graveyard, for that matter"
1 shivered
81 wish I was as strong minded as
you, cousin. This is the very night for
ghosts to walk abroad"
'' Mary, I'm ashamed of you" said
Penny.
''Is it really true about DIR. Stern
bright and the resurrectionists ?" [
went on.
{" Fiddlesticks p cried Cousin Penny,
=" not word of it and if it was true,
what difference would it make to us 2"
Only" pleaded 1, 81 wish he didn't
live next door"
Just then there came knocking at
the door, and presently Sarah came in.
1t wasn't my fault, ma am They
would leave itl'
" Would leave what ?' demanded
Penny.
The box, aam I said we hadn' t
ordered nothin', Dor didn't expect
nothin', but they said it was their or
ders to leave it, and down they dumped
it on the kitchen-foor, whether OF no."
"What sort of a box %
CA long, narrow one, ma am"
"Hum p soliloquized Penny. ''Per-
haps it's a mistake. Perhaps the parcel
is to go to DR.. Sternbright's. My hat
went to his house once And"
"Lor' have mercy on u.s." squeaked
the affrighted Sarah, jumping backward
as if hornet had stung her, "I know
what it is now, and I wish I'd been any
where afore I'd have let it into the house.
It's IA body"
"Sarah p cried Miss Penelope.
"Come and look at it for yourself,
ma'am," said Sarah, trembling all over
like leaf.
And we all three adjourned to the
kitchen. Sure enough, there lay long,
narrow box of unpainted deal, directly
across the kitchen floor And a narrow
card tackled on one end read, "For Dr.
Job Sternbright. With care"
Penny turned pale. Iuttereda shrek,
and jumped up on the kitchen table,
while Sarah Evans wedged herself be-
hind the door, whence she put her head
out like a Jack-in- the-box
''Mary, do you think it's really a
corpse?" faltered Penny, a greenish pal
lor overspreading her face.
"Of course it is, stammered. ooh,
dear, what shall we do?"
"It'll be walkin' the house directly
the clock strikes 12," crooned Sarah.
Mary" whispered Penny, catching
at me with a force which had very nearly
brought me down off the kitchen table,
3'let's go into the stable. There's very
decent chamber above, and"
In spite of my own terrors spite
of the grisiy thing upon the floor, L
could not help but laugh.
" Penny" cried /, 81 thought you
weren't afraid of ghosts.
Penny looked at me with unutterable
humility.
81 never had one in the house be-
fore, she said.
"As for the stables, that's all non
sense" said l. Lets shut ourselves
up in the parlor, and lock all the doors. >"
81 dare not. sobbed Penny, for once
in her life getting hysterical. "Oh,
dear Oh, dear let's go to DR.. Stern
bright's and ask 'em to take us in there
till the horrid corpse can be taken
away"
So through the storm we three help
less women trudged, getting wet
through, and slipping two or three
times from sheer inability to see our
way through the pitehy darkness, until
at last we stumbled into DR.. Stern
brights snug little sitting room, where
his cousin--neither tall nor awkward