Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1880-03-18

have look n ii. 1t Is pretty tumble
down; but judge the timbers are
sound, and guess the outside could be
tinkered up to look decently enough. ]
made rough calculation that with two
hundred dollars and giving my own time
it could be made weather-tight and
comfortable. What do you think,
Aunty?'
81 think you'd better get the idee out
of your head jest as quick as you can. u
"Why7" asked Tom, in his turn.
"You amt the first person that has
tried that experiment, said Aunt Sa-
bina. Fifteen years ago last Novem-
Der there was = man who took that
house. That was the last time it was
occupied. / recollect all about it. And
don't want you and Milly to come out
like that man and his wife did,
Fifteen years! Why the house
must have been pretty good house
then. How did they come outp' What
do You meana''
"Well, she had spell Of sickness on
her nerves. She amt ever been good
for much since, I've heard tell. And
he had q run of fever. He got over his
though; and as soon as they could, they
moved away. They wouldn't even live
SO near the house as this, they said, so
long as there was any other place to go
tor
Why, what on earth" began
John, while Milly frightened her hold on
his arm.
"I'll tell you the hull story about it, -
said Aunt Sabina, gratified by the effect
which she had produced. "You see
that house is pretty old one. Some
folks do say that it was built the year
that General Washington died. don't
know about that, but anyhow it's an
old house. The Stanways owned it
when I was a girl; but the old folks
died, and the darters married out West,
and the farm was let first to one and
then to another. I don't rightly re-
member who they all were; but at last,
after it had stood empty two years,
some kind of a furriner took it. Folks
used to meet him in the woods, gunnin',
with couple of big spotty dogs
hounds, guess they were-and once in
a while he would come in to trade at the
store; but nobody knew nothing about
him or his family, if he'd got one. And
he never said nothing about himself or
asked any one to call up to the house;
but just did his tradin' and went
away. see him once. He was
queer-looking man, with black hair and
long black beard; and his clothes
they was kind of queer too. They
didn't look like American clothes bit.
I guess it was the second winter after
he took the house that we had an awful
spell of weather 1t showed and friz
and blew and showed again for most
three months on q stretch, and the
drifts got to be so deep that the farmers
give up breaking roads, and didn't 60
about any more than they were obleeged
to; SO it didn't seem any way strange
that the furriner wasn't seen in town,
and nobody mistrusted any thing.
Some boys who went off into the
woods on snow-shoes to look for stray
cow, just after the spell set in, come
back sort of scared, and said they had
heard the most awful bowling of dogs
up to the house on the hill that ever
was. But dogs are kind of noisy, you
know; and nobody remarked particu-
larly on that, either. When the spring
come along, and the snow melted, folks
did begin to think that it was kind of
queer that the furriner wasn't seen
round any more; but 'twan't any ones
concern in especial and nobody took
much interest I'M him. So it went on
till the first of May, and, except for
just saying to each other that it
was peculiar, nobody thought nothing
about it.
swell, it was the first of May, or the
second, I forget which. remember it
all quite WE'LL" said Aunt Sabina, paus-
ing to draw long breath, 'sfor I was
down to the post-office that day, and 1
see the boys myself. There was two of
them-little fellows, not more than nine
or ten-and the youngest looked scared
to death. The other was scared too,
but not so much. They had gone off
into the woods after something Ct don't
know what. Checkerberries, perhaps),
and had come upon dreadful thing in
q swampy place. TWAS something like
a man, they said; but he was dead.
Folks thought they were funning at first;
but the boys held to their story, and at
last two or three of the men at the store
agreed to 60 and investigate the matter.
They took the biggest boy to show 'em
the way. The little one was too scared.
He didn't ever want to go into the
woods again, he said.
Well, there in the swamp they found
the furriner. He was dead, of course.
They guessed that he must have shot
himself with his own gun, by
an accident, for there was the