The Pickens sentinel. [volume] (Pickens, S.C.) 1871-1903, 1880-11-04

So,o
H"e Wild BeIl-RinEer and u Brave Roy.
Aquasco is such an out-of-the-way
town that no doubt many of the ch;ldre1
never have heard of it before. It is in
the State of Maryland, and stands on q
little hill near the mouth of Patuxent
tlVer. In the summer time no girl or
noy OF Aquasco need go to the seashore.
1or salt water flows at their feet and the
same salt breeze that sweeps fleet after
neet or wh1te-salled 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 grunt of the bull
frog Is the only voice that answers the
whlrr and ring of the clocks when they
strike twelve, midnight.
80 1T was that when i'll the middle of
the night of the 25th of last June, CYRUS
Wallace, M 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 mon run
ming by at the top of their speed.
whats the matter ?" shouted Cyrus,
to one of the flying figures.
hiO, Sull UlS man.
Fire, fire, fire !" shrieked Cyrus, as
he ran after the others, and in q fow
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 Aouasco
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 hi7
hands to his mouth and hallooed to the
top of the bell tower, where the bell was
still changing away The second man
dld 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.
'"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
"No, no, replied Mr.. Westcoat, the
sexton of the church, "I was up there
In the afternoon, and there wasn't any
body in the tower; it's spirit of COB
lin, that's what it is!' and Mr.. Westcoat
shook his head, while some OF the chill
dren huddled together and hold their
breath.
"Its old Tappan's ghost," con-
tnued 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
we'll that only towards believed in ghosts.
lie was afraid of big dogs and drunken
men, but common sense told him that
there was no such thing as ghost or
creature of the dark of any kind
"Give me the keys, said man to the
sexton. "Pll 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
was blowing stiffly 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 o 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 q ladder that reached to this little
window he stepped boldly up the rounds.
"Tll bring down.that ghost before Mr.
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.
1t was SO dark in the belfry that he
couldn't see where to move. He groped
from one step to another, going up the
belfry stairs slowly, while the sound
from the bell above seemed to crash