The aegis & intelligencer. [volume] (Bel Air, Md.) 1864-1923, 1879-03-14

wants to see-not even those who promised
to remember him forever"
Forty years is much worse than forever"
SAID she, land fifty-six is Il terribly unroman-
tic age"
Eyes, it is" said he; "but it is Il good age
enough for ghosts. BY the way, do you like
ghost stories? Let me tell you one
"Once there y.;# a g!.Oi-now | think of
II, he wasn't always ghost he was a boy
once-the son of a miller down by the water
side. He worked in the MILL and was floury
and white as 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 neigh
horhood came to the mill. The grain his ser
wants 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 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 ont to this hoy and cry Come here, little
boy. Show me where the flour silis from
| f'For that was what she liked to see the
best, the flour sitting through fine muslin-
| Every week she used to come until the miller
sent his boy away to school. When he came
| home again she was a girl of sixteen; prettier
than ever and she remembered asking him
to let her see the flour sitt and she talked to
| him while her father was attending to his
business; and the days she did not come the
boy cared nothing for, and the days that
brought her were marked and picked out as
blessed days.
After while he got over the ShynesS that
kept him from going to see her and went, and
she was not displeased She was the mistress
of the house, for hermother died young. She
| used to make tea for him on Sunday after
noon, and after tea her father would put his
handkerchief over his head and fall into II nap
Then they used to whisper together. Long
after the poor boy came to be ghost he Ic.
membered those evenings, when he was Il
bright-cheeked young fellow, the son of rich
miller, and he had the hope of marrying the
girl he loved before his eyes
"He thought the girl loved him as well as
he loved her, and he had no fears of the fu-
ture, 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 ankle
ty 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,
flower 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 a 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, 1T is my fathers will that we should
,ort I ,1;spbo,r H.
"Then she had told him that she loved
him as well as ever but he did not believe
her.
"l1e thought his poverty had turned her
heart from him, that she had never felt ten
derby towards him, and he left her in anger
believing all that had been said and written
about the talschood of women. Yes, he was
turned into ghost"
HE might have known she was as unhap-
py rs he was" said Miss Carney, from behind
her handkerchief; "but what can II girl do
when her father threatens to curse her. and
she the only child he has? Nothing could
make her marry any one else-nothng. That
she could do ut least"
but the poor ghost did not know that"
said the old man. at wandered away bro
ken-hearted. 1t found its way to sea first
and then into the battle. For years it
was a wrctched ghost, greatly to be pitied
and only wishing to die; but ut last it
grew content, though never happy, and
worked in great city ut trade until it had
made fortune.
"All the same, it was a miserable old bache-
Tor ghost, and never found mate and used
to say, often and often, over and over again.
to itself that women were all false, and that
the woman he loved had been utterly false to
him. He supposed her married to some one
else, and all this time he grew older and older
and long years lay between him and the hap
py time when he was a boy"
Long, long, years" sighed Miss Carney
Long, long, years"
"But one day." proceeded the old gentle
man, lone day there came to him out of the
past an old familiar face, and amidst the whirl
of the great city.this ghost talked to it of the
green lanes and ripping streams of the spot
where he was born, and asked of the house
under the oaks, and the girl who dwelt there
once-the girl who had been, as he thought
false to him And this old friend told him
something that made him feel suddenly that
he might come to life again.
"She never married. she said-it was a
woman. She lives in the old house now
Other men loved her, but she never loved any
other man but you. We all know that
"And then the ghost said to himself-'For-
ty years of life lost, and went down to the
hear her say she was sorry to see him.
"Oh, dear oh, dearw sighed the little old
lady in brown. How could she help it p
All her beauty gone all her youth what
could she feel but sorrow, and just ghost
herself"
She arose and turned away He arose and
followed her, putting his arm around her
waist.
"Priscy," he said, you are the only woman
| ever loved. Is not that something for man
| to say, when it is true as gospel? ?"
Eyes" she said; and almost believe you,
for-for | never cared for any one else eth
err"
"Then why not do our best to be happy
now, Priscy? why not marry each other, and
be living again, not two poor old ghosts?"
| "Well, because folks would call us two old
FOOLS" said she.
"Well, let them," said he.
| Every well" said she, 81 don't care"
Then the old gentleman in grey kissed the
old lady in brown, and said, "What day shall
we set, my dearY
What her answer was may be guessed when
the village bells, one month later, rang the
wedding peal of the old lovers.
How BOggs Ran for Office.
Boggs was as peaceable man as ever
| lived