Perrysburg journal. (Perrysburg, Wood Co., O. [Ohio]) 186?-1965, 1880-07-30

and sad that IL was almost a eroan.
"Here in this very wing. chamber, my
brother Oliver thought of IT," she said,
after long pause. " Here he called
mo to help him decide how to carry out
the plan. You see, girls, Isadore was
like your friend Evelyn-she possessed
great courage. She seemed TO have no
fear of any thing on earth. Oliver
knew this; so did I. And neither of us
expected any thing more than a hearty
laugh at her expense, or at our own,
when the evening frolic ended.
1T was Hallow Eve. lsadore and
her dearest friend, Miss Nancy Bruce
(who lived then at the farm just below
this one), had agreed to try fate with
spells, on that evening. They dared
each other to one thing and another,
and finally Isadore pledged herself to
go into the lonely old north rooms, with
la candle, at nine O'Clock that evening,
and eat an apple before Grandmamma
Thorne's great mirror that had been
stored away there for safe-keeping for
fifty years or more.
"You see, girls, the idea was, that
her future husbands face was to appear
to her, looking over her shoulders, in
that mirror, as she stood before it, eat
ing her apple.
"Well, Oliver overheard the girls
planning this that afternoon, and he
told me. And, as / said before, / helped
him, here in this very room, that even.
ing, while he disguised himself in a long
white dress, and painted his face all
over a deathly white, with heavy, frown-
ing black eyebrows that met, forming
a black arch across his forehead.
at changed him terribly, and he
looked so like q corpse in that shroud.
like dress, that l was half-scared myself
at him. But mother of us thought Of
LSGdore being frightened
"And so we stole into the north room,
and contrived to get the mirror out OF
its frame. Oliver put his face into the
vacant space. l hunga drapery around
it, and charged him to keep perfectly
still, and then stole away to watch for
Isadore in the hall.
"In few minutes she came down the
stairs, with her candle and apple in her
hands. She was smiling roguishly to
herself as she opened the door of the
nOIJn room ana went IN. -
"And what happenedP" asked Elfri-
da, eagerly, as Miss Mildred paused.
"Where was your mother How
could she let Isadore go into that dread
full room?" breathed Marian Hurst.
"Father and mother were both stay
ing with sick neighbor as watchers
that night" said Miss Mildred; "and l
watched and waited, in the outer hall,
till Nancy Bruce came, crying, down
stairs, to tell some one what they had
planned to do, because she thought
something awful had happened to keep
lsadore so long in the north room.
"When Nancy saw me she caught
hold of me and dragged me with her to
the door of the north room. We went
in. The candle was burning on the
table. The apple had fallen to the floor.
Beside it my brother Oliver was lying
senseless, in fit. His face looked like
white fire, in the half-darkness. The
poor foolish boy had rubbed phosphorus
all over it, after left him, to make it
look still more ghastly and ghost-like.
"And Isadore-where was IsadoreP"
cried Marian Hurst, beginning to shiver
with nervous dread.
"We found her huddled down in a
heap in distant corner, with her face
turned to the wall. She knew no one.
Oliver told us, long afterward, that she
stood gazing at him in silence so long
that he advanced his face toward her,
through the mirror, meaning to play to
offer her kiss.
"The light, the life, the intelligence,
all went out of her own face at that mo.
ment, ;" he said. "She fled and crouched
down in the corner; and he, believing
that he had fatally injured her, fell
fainting to the floor"
"Poor fellow " sighed Elfrida.
"Where is he now, Miss MildredP"
"In heaven, hope He was one of
our first volunteers from this town, and
one of the first officers who was killed in
the last war. They told me that he ex-
posed his life in leading his men into
action. did not mourn for him, girls
knew hOW glad he was to go. Our
parents died heart broken, one year from
that fatal Halloween" :"
"But, Isadore-where is sheP" asked
Elfrida, half fearfully.
cat the State Lunatic Asylum. AT
first, she seemed only idiotic, and kept
her at home, devoting my life to her, as
some small return for the wrong that l
had helped to work. But now she is
raging, raving, dangerous maniac! Oh,
girls, there is nothing left now of the
beautiful child, or of the lovely girl! 1t
was all our fault" said poor Miss Mil
dred, bursting into tears and hurrying
out of the room.
Elfrida's eyes were wet, like ours, as
she brought back and silently demolished
the fearful "woman with broom"
And Evelyn Moore, returning an hour
later with the letters, never knew why
we girls greeted her so kindly and SO
lovingly upon that particular night.