Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1878-06-12

the middle Of the floor with her long
black hair in curls about her shoulders,
and a blue ribbon around her taper
girls waist.
Now he looked at her, and she was
really old and stout, but somehow she
seemed to be nobody else, but Prisey
Carney. ,at
She saw him looking from the furni-
ture to her face, and interpreted his
thought. ..r........ .,t..
EYES," she said, almost angrily, g is
it not strange? There are the bits of
wood and glass and china, just as they
used to be. There are the oak trees,
only finer and greener. The very grass
and flowers might be the same; and
here am I, old, faded, and lonely, and
my handsome, bright-eyed father dead
in his grave, and all 1 care fer gone. |
wish | were gone also. [ think people
who have not seen each other for years
need not seek each other again. |
wish they would not come to me after
being all the same as dead for forty
years. 1t is precisely like seeing
ghosts" 2
She looked as though she wanted to
cry. ~ -. 49,. Ht#
"Poor cid Ghost" said he, whom
no one wants to see-nOt even those
who promised to remember him for
ever"
Forty years is much worse than for
eyer" said she, "and fifty-six is a ter
ribly unromantic age" r.
Eyes, it is" said he; d" but it is a good
age enough for ghosts. By the way, do
you like ghost stories? Let me tell you
one.
"Once there was a ghost-now l
think of it he wasn't always a ghost; he
was q boy once-the son of a miller
down by the waterside. He worked in
the mill, and was foury and white as a
ghost should be most of the time; but
he was happy and gay, and many
things happened as he liked. One of
them was when a certain rich farmer
in the neighborhood came to the mill.
The grain his servants brought in the
great wagons, but he, the farmer, used
to drive to the mill with his little
daughter in the gig beside him. She
was a pretty child, with long curls, and
her eyes were big and brown.
She made pretty picture IN her
white dresses and bright ribbons, and
she came when she was so young that
she used to hold her hands out to this
boy and cry, Come here, little boy.
Thow me where the flour siffs from =.
For that was what she liked to see
the best, the flour sitting through the
fine muslin. Every week she used to
come until the miller sent his boy away
to school. When he came home again
shewas a girl of sixteen, prettier than
ever, and she remembered asking him
to let her see the -four sift, and she
talked to him while her father was at
tending to his business; and the days
when she did not come the boy cared
nothing for, and the days that brought
her were marked and picked out as
blessed days. .s.a-..
E, q After while he got over the shy
ness that kept him from going to see
her, and went, and she was not dis
pleased. She was the mistress of the
house, for her mother died young. She
used to make tea for him on Sunday
afternoon, and after tea her father
would put his handkerchief over his
head and fall into a nap. Then they
used to whisper together. Long after
the poor boy came to be a ghost he re-
membered those evenings, when he
was a bright-cheeked young fellow, the
son of rich miller, and had the hope
Of marrying the girl he loved before
his eyes. yr z..i......t -....
"He thought the. girl loved him as
we'll as he loved her, and he had no
fears of the future, no thought that
trouble could come to him in any way
until misfortune overlook his father,
The good OLD man failed. The mill was
sold. There was nothing but anxiety
at home. At last worse came-his
father died soon after his mother. He
was very sad; he was poor, also; but he
had hope, for he was beloved by the one
he loved.
"One day he went to her for comfort.
He remembered the day ever after,
The loW-built. old-fashioned house, the
great oaks, +fower-garden, the girl in
her white dress and blue ribbons who
came to greet him. He was full of
life still, but that night, when he turned
away from the house, he was ghost
the miserable ghost Of his old self, for
he no longer had any faith in love.
" Standing before him, pale and sad,
and with tears in her eyes, it is true, he
had heard her who had made the world
bright for him, say, cit is my fathers
will that we should part. I cannot dis
obey my old parent 49,.
~ =" Then she had told him that she
loved him as we'll as ever; but he did
not believe her.
g He thought this poverty had turned
her heart from him, that she had never
felt tenderlv towards him, and he left
her in anger, believing all that had
been written about the falsehood of
women, Yes, he was turned into a
ghost"
He might have known she was as
unhappy as he was" said Miss Carney,
from behind her handkerchief; q but
what can girl do when her father
threatens to cllrSa har and she tho on1v