The New Bloomfield, Pa. times. (New Bloomfield, Pa.) 1877-188?, 1877-07-17
A GHOST STORY.

neighbors know what happened. All
the neighbors saw all that was 10 be
seen. All the neighbors saw how 1t be-
gan, and as 1t is the story of Choker's
ghost, 1t could not have begun until
Choker died.
"Old Choker" had been so called for
many years--before he was actually old,
/ should suppose; but he was very
queer fellow, u man without relatives or
friends, and who seemed to want none.
He was q mysterious man, too.
He had wooden leg, and no one
knew how he came by II.
He had black patch over one eye, and
no one could tell why he wore 1t.
He had rusty brown wig, and there
was no man intimate enough to know
whether he adopted 1t because he was
bald or because he was gray.
He had deposit in the bank, and no
one knew how he earned the money.
He came stranger to Grabtown and
bought house and little farm there,
giving his name as Guy Choker. That
was all that any one knew about him,
except that he had the best crops to be
seen for miles around.
He never went to church, and never
chatted to n neighbor. No one knew
anything against him; as they knew
nothing, they suspected great deal
and when at last he was found dead one
morning, all the bottled-up curiosity
popped out as champaign docs when it
Is uncorked
Everybody went to see him where he
lay.
Everybody attended the inquest, and
everybody went to the funeral.
1t was decided that he died of apo
pleXy.
There was no relation to see him, but
there would probably be plenty left to
pay for his funeral, so there was no diff
Guilty about that.
The clergyman said doubtful sort of
good word for him, and as he was dead,
no one contradicted it.
And Peggy Kinder, who said she
wasn't afraid of anything, was put into
the house to take care of it.
She knew old Choker very well, hav-
ing done washing for him for five years.
That night, the weather being chilly
spring weather, she made up good fire
in the kitchen and slept on an old lounge
there. Once in the night, she woke up
and thought she heard the clump, ,clump
clump of q wooden leg overhead, but
though she felt chill run up her back
bone at the thought, she made up her
mind that 1t was all nonsense, and went
to sleep again.
At six she was up and had put more
coal on the fire, and was filling the ket-
tie, when positively-no fancy about it
this time-she did hear that clump,
clump, clump, again across the room up
stairs, half dozen times, then down
the stairs.
The sound of Choker's wooden leg,
and nothing else; and as she turned
about, shaking and trembling, she saw
Choker himself at the door in his big
flowered dressing-gown, with the black
patch over his eye, land brown wig on.
Lord have mercy on u.s." cried
Peggy.
Then, as Choker nodded cheerfully,
and said: Breakfast ready yet ?" she
grew bewildered.
"I've been having horrid dream,
sir" she said, getting away from the
figure, though, as she spoke; "and it's
as natural as life. 1 dreamed that you
were dead, sir, but it was so natural that
you skeer me-"
Do I?'' said old Choker. " Why,
bless ye, we must all die"
Yes, sir" said Peggy.
"And all be buried too,' said Choker,
know that" said Peggy.
"Only all of us won't stay buried,
said Choker, putting his finger to his
nose.
And at that Peggy, never waiting even
for her bonnet, bolted out of the house
and came tumbling into her daughters
half an hour after, shaking with fright
and vowing she had seen Choker's ghost
The daughter was nearly as mucl
frightened as the mother, and the news
spread, but nobody believed it.
AT least every one said it was ridicu
lous, and that Peggy must have beer
drinking.
She did drink more than was good fo
her now and then; and at last the un
dertaker himself, accompanied by tn,
coroner-the two men nervous on tn
subject of ghosts, and besides who had I
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