The true northerner. [volume] (Paw Paw, Mich.) 1855-1920, 1880-10-29
The wild Eeu-Ringer and "A brave Roy.

Aquasco Is such an out-of-the-way
town that no doubt many of the children
never have heard of it before IL is in
the State OF Maryland, and stands on a
little hill near the mouth of PatuXent
River. In the summer time no girl or
boy of AquGsco need go to the seashore.
for salt water flows ut their feet and the
same salt breeze that sweeps fleet after
fleet of white-sailed ships up and down
the Chesapeake Bay blows in the
windows Of the houses in Aquasco. The
good people OF Aquasco go to bed so
soon after supper that the whippoor- will
cries and complains without one person
to pity him, and the grlnt of the bull
frog is the only voice that answers the
whirr and ring of the clocks when they
strike twelve, midnight.
So it was that when in the middle of
the night of the 18th of last June, Cyrus
Wallace, an Aquasco boy, heard the
church bell ringing, he sprang out of
bed and ran barefooted into the street.
AS he reached the gate he saw men run
ming by at the top Of their speed
'What's the matter" shouted Cyrus,
to one of the flying figures.
GA fire, / guess" said the man.
Fire, fire, fire y shrieked Cyrus, as
he ran after the others, and in few
minutes the whole town of Aquasco was
aroused. Everybody was in the street
and everybody was hurrying towards the
church Women seized water buckets
and children gathered up pals. Aquasco
had been very still five minutes before,
but now Aquasco was beside itself with
excitement
But where was the fire ? The first
man who reached the church put his
hands TO his mouth and hallooed to the
top of the bell tower, where the bell was
still Changing away The second man
did the same and the third called aloud
and so did the fourth. Not word would
the person in the bell-tower answer.
though he rang and rang, until all
Aquasco gathered on the grass below.
1.-THE door of the steeple is locked -
said one of the men. Nobody under
stands it"
Maybe some rascal got locked in
there yesterday and fell asleep" said
Mr.. Rankin tie Constable.
"No, no, replied Mr. Westcoat, the
sexton of the church, II was mp there
in the afternoon, and there wasn't any
body in the tower; it's n spirit of COB
In, that's what il isl" and Mr.. Westcoat
shook his head, while some of the chill
dren hUddled together and held their
breath
Its old Tappan's ghost" con-
tinued Mr.. Westcoat. "Tappan was
sexton before l was, and he rang that
bell up there for twenty years. He's
come back.
Cyrus laughed when he heard the sex
ton say such things Cyrus knew very
well that only towards believed in ghosts.
He was afraid of big dogs and drunken
men, but common sense told him that
there was 10 such thing as n ghost or
creature OF the dark Ut any kind.
"Give me the keys, said man to the
sexton. "Tll go up and stop that ring
ing" The sexton fumbled in his pocket
only to find that he had left the keys at
home, half mile away. Glad enough
to get away from the haunted church,
the sexton started home after the keys.
Meanwhile the bell still rang Every
now and then the strokes would he faint,
but the next instant would come loud
clang, as though the cid bell didn't like
such mysterious work Int. The wind
was blowing sti1iiy in the tops of the tau
oak trees. but all knew that the wind
could not ring the bell because of the
lattice-worlS around the belfry. While
the people were whispering together
around the church, Cyrus was busy look
ing for way to get into the belfry be-
fore the sexton should return with the
keys He knew that there was little
round window, just large enough for him
TO crawl through, some distance up the
side of the tower, and when he at last
got ladder that reached to this little
window he stepped boldlyup the rounds.
"I'll bring down That ghost before Mr..
Westcoat gets back" laughed Cyrus,
and the people could see him by the dim
starlight rs he pat his head through the
window and disappeared.
Cyrus found himself in queer place.
It was so dark in the belfry that he
couldn't see where to move. He CROPPED
from one step to another, going up the
belfry stairs slowly, while the sound
from the bell abovo seemed to crash
down from above with ten-foId clangor.
He reached the crank which the sexton
turned when ringing the bell. No one
was there.
"Hello no. there. hop shouted Cyrus
directly into the bells throat. But the
bells roar drowned his words. He
climbed still higher, and soon sat among
the rafters above the bell. He reached
down aud felt the ali around the bell.
His hard struck something. ooh =
thought Cyrus. He felt the something
and found that il was the limb of tree.
Following the limb with his hand he
fonnd that the limb bad thrust itself
through big hole in the lattice-worlk.
Every time the tall tree on the outside
rocked. this limb moved quickly forward
and Withdrew again. Cyrus laughed.