Weekly Trinity journal., 1877-03-17

upon that you fancied you saw him in the
house, and you believed you did not see
him in his grave. When a man is dead
and buried, that's an end of him."
" But 90 to the house and see for your
self" said some one. "Alive or dead,
Chol<er is there"
Sir" said the scientific gentleman,
" neither alive nor dead can be be there.
A body cannot burst its coffin lid, arise
through the turf and walk about the town
as before. Nor can a spirit exist without
a body. If should see Dir. Choter, l
should not believe l saw him. Ny com
mon sense tells me ! cannot see him, and
! never allow my senses to contradict my
common sense. The house is empty
There is no one there. 1t is all imagin-
alton"
However that may have been, everyone
else in Grabtown saw him, sooner or later.
The lamp burnt bright in his Window at
night. The garden prospored under his
ghostly tillage. lie went to the store
once fortnight, and drew his money at
the bank as usual.
As a ghost, his silent, reserved conduct
seemed very suitable to his condition.
As a ghost, it seemed very proper that he
should have no fricnd- and no Kindred
People avoided his house Of nights, and
boys ran scampering away when they
saw him plodding along lonely lanes by
moonlight, and old folks shook their
heads, and snd it was curious ; but there
was Choker, fact TO every ono but the
scientific gentleman, who when be passed
him, muttered to himself, "Optical illu-
sions :" and whether he was ghost, or
n man endowed with !he power Of defy
ing death and the undertaken no one felt
prepared to answer. lie was known some
times as "ChoIer's Ghost" and some
times rs "Choker that came too :" but
no one doubted for moment that some
how he was Choker, and the very Chok-
er they had seen dead, subjected to an in
quest and buried and all this went on
for ten good years, and people had grown
used to It, when one cold winter morning
a small note was brought to the doctor,
bearing these words:
Come to me. l an ill., CHoKER.
"Don't go, dear" said the doctors
wife.
81 must" said the doctor, and went
accordingly.
lie found the door of Choler's house
open, and the popular ghost himself
wrapped in blanke4 BY the freside.
"Come in," he said, gasping cor breath.
Il wasn't sure you'd come. I've been
feeling the Inconvenience Of being super
natural since I've been to i'll too make
myself a cup ten. Just see what is the
matter with me, will you. I think it's
serious, whatever it is"
The doctor did his best His private
opinion was that Chokcr, whoever ne
might be, had not long to live. Whether
he hud ever been dead before or not, he
was certainly going to die now.
" 1t is as thought" said Chokor look
ing into his face. 81 knew that maady
was incurable years ago but the end is
at hand now, eh %
d" In the case Of any other man, I
should say yos,'" said the doctor "but
examined you once when you were Ger
tainly a dead man, and can't judge for
you. ! don't ask your confidence, Mr..
ChoEer; but that affair is puzzle to me,
though Of course Tvcneyer taken you for
a ghost
81 Think III conGde in you, doctor
said Chol,er, "only you must promise to
keep my secret whilo live. You prom
ise ? We'll, this is 1t, then I'm not Cho-
ker at all. The night before you held
the'inqucst on old Choker I came stomp
ing into Grabtown. ia been through all
sorts Of vici>situdos had been an actor
onco then soldier; lost n leg, and
come homo to starve or beg. ia given
up doing the first, and taken to the lat
ter, and was tromping il over the coun-
try, and at night got to GNbtown.
"The door Of this house stood open as
l passed in, and in it stood man. |
saw bis figure by the light behind him,
and I went up to him.
"'Sir' said l, they say fellow feeling
makes us wondrous kind. You've got
wooden leg, and, perhaps, know it isn't
just the thing to stump over the country
all night with
at was old ChokcrI spoke to, and
what he said was this;
"' / don't understand about your po-
etly, or scripture, or whatever it is, but |
do know about wooden legs. Come in.'
" l went in, and he gave me supper
and bed in the eoret. We both saw
that we looked considerably alike, and
laughed over it, Tho, night l slept in
the garret, and when | walked in the
morning found my host was dead,
and the house full OF neighbors.
81 felt that, as the death was sudden,
1t might be best for me to keep out OF
sight. / was a: sorry for it rs a stranger
could be, but my being there might be
suspicious. l kept hidden in the garret
in great lumber closet, and heard poor
Choker's affairs talked over, and learned
his habits
" Some of his clothes were up in the
garret, and an Old wig, and one Of the
patches he had worn over his eye was
there too and there was an old dressing
glass in corner. ! tried on the wig md
patch, and saw how ike old Choler they
made me Iooll-only ! was not so brown.
Then | took some waInuts that lay on
the floor, and rubbed the juice into my