The Brookhaven ledger. (Brookhaven, Miss.) 1875-1883, 1877-05-24

at is Choker,' said the undertaken
to the Coroner; yet | buried him and
be was dead man then"
| "Its Choker, but he was dead when
! / held an inquest over him, said the
coroner
They hurried away, and the crowd
Hurried away too.
That day the grave was examined.
/ Ii was empty; even Choker S coffin
was gone.
After that every one believed tue story
but the Clergyman and scientific gen
! tlemap.
The former declared that t was wick
ed to believe iii ghosts; the latter that
there were no such things As ghosts.
| "Choker is not at the house at all, )"
he sad, land his body is in the grave.
kat your imaginations have been SO
worked upon that You fancied you saw
him in the house, and you believed that
you did not see him in his grave. When
man is dead and buried that's an end
of him.
"But 50 to the house aud see for
yourself, said some one. "Aliye or dead.
! Choker is there.
Sir" said the scientific gentleman,
"neither alive nor dead. can he be
there. A body cannot burst its coffin
lid, arise from the turf, and walk ab ,ut
the town as before. Nor can a spirit
exist without body. If l should see
Mr.. Choker, | should not believe / saw
him. NV common sense tells me that
! 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 imagination.
J However that may have been every
/ one else in Grabtown saw him sooner or
I later
| The lamp burnt bright in his window
at night The garden prospered under
HE ghostly tillage. He drew the money
| at the bank as usual.
/ As a ghost, his silent, reserved con
( duct seemed very suitable to his condi
! tion.
| As q ghost it seemed very proper that
/ he should have no friends and no kin
| dred.
| People avoided his house of nights,
and bows ran scampering away when
they saw hlm plodding along lonely
! lanes by moonlight. and old folks shook
| their heads and said it was curious; but
there was Choker a fact to every one,
| but the scientific gentleman, who, when
| he passed him, muttered to himself,
Optical Illusion and whether he was
I Il ghost or 4 man endowed with the
power of defying TIE undertaken, he
never felt prepared to answer.
| He was known sometimes as "Chok>
/ er's ghost. AMI sometimes as ''Choher
that came to" but no Que doubted for
! q moment that somehow he WAS ChoG
or. and the very Choker they had seen
dead. subjected to al inquest, ana
buried; and all this went on for ten
good wears, and people had grown used
! TO it. when one cold winter morning
small note was brought to the doctor,
bearing these words:
s'oome to me- I'm i'll.
"CHoKrR.
"Don't 20, dear" said the Doctors
wife
Il must" said the doctor; and went
accordingly
I H forni tha DOOR # Choker's house
open. au3 the popular ghost himself
wrapped in a blanket by the 6reside.
"Come in he said, gasping for
breath. 'T wasn't sure you'd come. I've
been feeling the iucouv enience of being
supernatural since I've been too i'll to
make myself cup of tea. just see
what is the matter with me will you? |
think it's serious, whatever it is.
The doctor did his best.
| JJie }a p,,i,,Jo,, rr1a that {thoE
whoever he might be, had not long to
live.
| Whether he had ever been dead be-
fore or not, lie was certainly going to
die row.
ut is as I thought" said Choker.
looking into his face Il knew the NAL
ndy was incnrable years ago. But the
end is at haud now, eh?"
"IE the case os env other man |
should say yes" said the doctor, "but L
examined you once when You were GER
tainiy a dead MAJ, and | can't judge
for you. | don't ask your confidence,
A.r. Choker, but that affair is o puzzle
tc me, though, Of course, have never
taken you for ghost.
II think I II confde in you, doctor, y
said Cholser, "only you must promise
to keep my secret while | live. The
night before You held the inquest on
old Choker, / came into Grabtown. I'd
been an actor once. then soldier; lost
q leg, and come home to starve or
beg.
"Tho door of this house stood open,
and in it stood man. / went up to
him.
q Sir, said I. they say that fellow
feeling makes ns woudrous kind. You We
got wooden leg. and, perhaps know 1t
isn't just the thing to stump over the
country all night with.
1T was old Choker | spoke to, and
what he said was:
81 don't understand about your po
.etry, or scripture, or whatever it is. bat
l do know about wooden legs. Come
I in
II went in, and he gave me supper
and a bed in the garret. We both saw
that we looked considerably alike, and
laughed over it, That night slept in
1.-THE garret, and when ] woke in the
morning l found my host was dead, and
, the house full of neighbors.
81 felt that, rs the death was sudden,
it might be best for me to keep out of
sight. l was rs sorry for it az strang-
/, ter could be, but my being there might
be considered suspicious. | kept hid>
den up in the garnet in great lumber
closet, and heard poor Choker's affairs
talked over and learned his habits.
"Some of his clothes were up in the
garnet, and an old wig, and one of the
. patches he wore over his eye was there,
, too; and there was an old dressing
glass in corner. tried on the wig
, and the patch, and saw how like Old
Choker they made me look, only was
. not SO brown. Then ] took some wal
nuts that lay on the floor, and rubbed
the juice into my skin. 1t increased
the Resemblance, so did whitening my
eyebrows with bit of chalk. And
, sat down and looked at myself, and the
plan that l afterwards carried ont came
into my mind. Iwould play old Chok-
Ter, as l knew could.
, "I'd studied his voice and movements
! well, and, as told you, had once been
an actor, and SO Ishouls step into de-
, cent homo and comfortable means with
out hurting any one. The night aftel
ba xpao brrio1 I aapno ont nf the carrej