The Kenosha telegraph. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1860-1888, 1880-11-05

And when the royal building
vas founded in his name,
He lifted the humble giasShopper
To It's pinnacle Ct fame.
There, through the long long centuries
BY breeze or tempest shaken,
1t tells, God heard the voice OF the lad
BY human love forSakan!"
The Wild BeII-BinEer and a Brave BOY.
Aquasco is such an out-of-the-way
town that no doubt many of the children
never have heard of it before. It is in
the State of Maryland, and stands on
little hill near the mouth of Patuxent
River In the summer time no girl or
boy Of Aquasco need go to the seashore,
for salt water flows at their feet and the
same salt breeze that sweeps feet after
feet 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-
cries and complains without one person
to pity him, and the grunt 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 25th 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.
"a fire, guess" said the man.
Fire, fire, fire !" 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 d? 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 oil
Aquasco gathered on the grass below.
'"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 the Constable.
emo, no." replied Mr.. Westcoat, the
sexton of the church, 81 was up there
in the afternoon, and there wasn't any
body in.the tower; it's a spirit of COB
lin, that's what it is!' and Mr.. Westcoat
shook his head, while some of the chill
dren huddled together and held their
breath.
cts old Tappan's ghost" con-
tinued Mr.. Westcoat. "Tappan was
sexton before I 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, bat common sense told him that
there was no such thing as a ghost or
creature of the dark of any kind.
"Give me the keys, said a man to the
sexton. "I1l 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 be faint,
but the next instant would come loud
clang, as though the old bell didn't like
such mysterious work a bit. The wind
was blowing stifiy in the tops of the tall
oak trees, but all knew that the wind
could not ring the bell because of the
lattice-work 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 boldly up the rounds.
eth bring down that ghost before Mr..
Westcoat gets back" laughed Cyrus,
and the people could see him by the dim
starlight as he put 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 above seemed to crash
down from above with ten-fold clangor.
He reached the crank which the sexton
turned when ringing TIE bell. No one
was there.
@Hello no, there, no p 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 and felt the all around the bell
His hand struck something. sob r
thought Cyrus. He felt the something
and found that it was the limb of a tree.
Following the limb with his hand, he
found that the limb had thrust itself
| through big hole In the lattice-work.
Every time the tall tree on the outside
rocked, this limb moved quickly forward
dHu WlbHI0W again. -OJluS 4duShCo.
He had found the ghost, for he knew that
the end of the limb had caught the clap
per of the bell, and SO that every time
| the tree was rocked by the wind the
clapper struck He caught the limb
with both hands and gave it hard,
strong pull. The limb bent and the bell
stopped ringing.
In the mean time the people were
waiting anxiously below. As soon as the
bell stopped Cyrus put his mouth to the
] I,nla II, fha lnffica and called ont that Il