Centre Democrat. [volume] (Bellefonte, Pa.) 1848-1989, 1880-04-01
OUR HAUNTED HOUSE.

"Do buy the house, Charlie; I am not
Mt all afraid of ghostsW
NV husband leans against the worm
eaten fence and looks thoughtfully ut
the dull, old fashioned house, with its
shutters tapping from broken hinges, its
porches overgrown with vines. its gar
den full of rank weeds, and the river
singing beyond its garden gate.
"1t is very cheap, Amy" he says, at
length. "They only charge me for the
land, and nominally nothing for the
house. But can you endure living in
such a deserted place, and in the city
all dayp Why, all sorts of noises can
be heard here day and night, and have
heard good, intelligent people, with con
sciences, say they had seen the spirit OF
walking all about these grounds at
evening. Nobody else would dare buy
it. Why, it has had no tenants for a
year. fear it will frighten away your
friends. and that you yourself will have
to succumb to the spirit-influence of the
place"
He stops, seeing the expression on my
face. | can bear anything better than
the allusion to spirit-inhuence or to the
belief of the progressionists. Charlie is
. good business man; but he has read
great many scientific works written by
men who thought they were very wise
on the subject of spiritualism and he
has investigated, or. rather. invested
great deal in the saTe. He has pro-
gressed to such an exent that he can
sometimes hear raps on the headboard.
and feel cold shivers down his back.
and in mOsquito-time he often feels
pinehes from unseen suirit-fngers.
do not like to reah scientific books
and during the short time we have been
married. have employed my time, in
stead, in practicing waltzes, making pies
Charlie worships me. believe it is
Gods unseen law of recompense that
there should always be some one to
adore. even women with freckles, wide
mouth and figure like a Dutch doll.
At all events, my will Is always law |;
50 Charlie takes his knife and cuts away
the rose brambles that have thrown
their arms across the front door, and to-
gether we enter the vacant echoing
rooms. The ceilings are dim with walls
of cobwebs, the spiders run up the walls
Mt our approach. The house has n ruin
GUS, moidy smell, but it does not oppress
me as it does Charlie. Already in my
minds eye I see what It will be like,
cleaned and aired, with open windows
and cheerful furniture.
Iran through the house, exclaiming:
"What beautiful wide hall!-this
room facing the south shall be our sit
ting room. / will rout all the ghosts
with sunshine. See those hollyhocks
smiling over that picket fence, and those
summer pears all rotting on the ground
what shamel-and all those rose
~. .l.xIal -. tha Innf, sx-ooafff
Charlie shakes bis hoad.
eff you had heard sll I have about
this house, you would he in no haste to
live here. You know the Widow Wool
sons daughter that has been missing
from town year, and supposed TO be
murderede Well, Geoffry Clare was
passing here one night, only last week
and you know, whatever else he will do,
he won't leland he told me he saw
Grace Woolson's face ms plain as day
over that garden fence"
Ichecked him suddenly again. have
never kad but this one secret from my
husband, that three years before | met
him had fallen hopelessly in love with
handsome Geoffry Glare. He had soon
forgotten me for pretty Grace Woolson.
who had afferward disappeared so mys-
teriously that no trace Of her could be
found. although er mother and Geoffry
Ind searched for her many months.
/ think loved him no longer, and
sometimes thanked God for taking my
future out Of my unskiilful hands, yet
the mention Of his name always made
me Vince.
As Charles only objections were on
my account, and as we were not rie h
enough to buy such home as we mig.
have chosen, within q week he had
paid he small sum required for the
haunted hcuse, and we had moved into
- bag and baggage. liked the place,
which wns neither town nor country,
bat was embowered among its trees,
iast at the terminus oI the pavemenfs.
uilh such grand OLE garden and such
aIfmpses oi wood and water. The first