The Hickman courier. [volume] (Hickman, Ky.) 1859-current, 1881-09-16

ton gracefully, and acted rs If she h,1
never seen me before. There was not
the slightest half-glance of recoon;.;or
she evidently intended to consider me
a receEt acquaintance, With cur;o1,s
inconsistency / could not help beino' a
little disappointed, while at the same
time l was immensely relieved. don't
know what / had expected-a start a
blush, Just the shy, pleased look of n
girl toward an old friend not vet forgot
! ten or was it haughtiness, hardly veiled
anger, disgust? Whatever 1 had ex
pected, | got nothing at all but pleasant
meaningless words, great politeness.
great civihty. / had nothing whatever
to do with, and could have no interest
in. the intimacy that formerly existed
between Mabel Humphreys and james
! w. Wolcott: he was one man and was
another And SO the DAYS went on. ana
she was always friendly with her fathers
coPyist.
Toward the end Of July Ned Humph-
reys came home. and brought Mr.. But
ter-Scotch Steele with him. Mr. Steele's
baptismal name was William, but he had
been rechristened by his friends Butter
Scotch, on account % his fondness for
that particular kind of candy.
Ned was quite boy, aud a capitalfel-
low at that, and he and | soon became
firm friends; but Butter-Scotch /
loathed. l really don't know why |
loathed him so much, unless because
there was n rumor afOat that Mabel
was making up her mind TO renounce
the bangs aud bangles of single life, and
herceforth stick to Buttcr-Scotch. OF
course, this, of itself, was enough TO
make me contemplate placing an extra
ordinarily bent pIn on ms chair. or con
verting his OyercOat pocket into re-
.pository for a litter of baby kittens But
Independently of this rumor, I had a
distinct and positive impression that ]
loathcd the man Just as he was, whether
he ever succeeded in marrying Mabel or
/ not. OF course, il was none of my
business, but it did seem 4 pity TO stand
by and see her become the missing rib.
thereby completing the anatomy. of such
molly coddle
One morning I was standing on the
/ piazza just finishing a very nice cigar
/ Mr.. Humphreys had presented me with
the day before, with the remark that he
I didnt mind man smoking once IN
! while, if h smoked tobacco, but he |
abominated cabbage-when Mabel came /
ont
"Mr. Wolcott," she said care you |
going to be busy for few minutes ?"
' think not, l replied. /" Mr.. |
Humphreys doesn't want TO begin for
half an hour yet.
Then viii you come TO the croquet (
ground and finish your cigar there 2
." Certainly" l answered; with
pleasure"
Over to the croquet ground we strolled,
and Mabel sat down ON one of the rus-
tic seats. Without preamble of any
kind, she began:
know you have a friendly feeling
for us all, Mr., Wolcott, and l want TO
ask your opinion and advice
I bowed. for she was unquesti0nably
sight about nay friendly faolinss -ls,st
wondered what was coming
She went on What do you think
OF Mr.. Steele ?"
Well. that wss a poser What did l
think Of Butter Scotch? That he was a
fool. of course but I reflected 1t
wouldn't do 10 tell her SO, particularly If
she was going to On, no it wouldn't
do at ALL
why do you ask. Miss Humphreys?'
g viii tell you frankly. There Is
very strong inclination on papa's part TO
buy the stone house"
Yes, / know there is.
And don't want him to.
MAY I ask why not ?"
Because it's haunted
81 don't see how that affects Mr.. |
Steele-he isn't haunted.
Mabel laughed - don't suppose he |
is But that isn't what ] mean | want
to know if he is courageous enough to
go there and see If, is really haunted
"Oh, guess he's pretty brave he
says he is, and Mr.. Humphreys thinks
so too. l believe"
EYES. papa is 50 enthusiastic over Mr..
Butt mean Mr.. Steele's kind heart
and religious feeling; be thinks he must
I've a good man, and not easily fright
ened.' She looked at me squarely. And
| want TO know if he's a man fully to be
trusted"
With untold wealth -
No: to see ghost"
All 1 see r.
You're brave, too. aren't you, Mr..
Wolcott?"
You're very kind to say so, but
assure you there never was a worse COW
ard than / am. I've no courage at all
I'm all brain Now there's the difference
between Mr. Steele and myself
Mabel rose. Yes. / see the differ
ence, she said "I'm very much Obliged
to you, Mr.. Wolcott, 70, your good ad-
Il
undertake it. Brain is a good thing,
so is courage prefer happy mixture.
And with a pleasant little nod she sailed
off,
| never saw until afterward what a
comparison T had made-one all courage
and no brain, and the other all brain and
no conrage ] had muddled things
badly, that was evident, and the worst
\ of it was that she never gave me an
opportunity to let her know I had not
intended any disrespect to her future
( licge.
4 All this time Sol. Humphreys never
+ ceased talking about buying the stone
/ house. At last Mabel made the propo-
/ sition that some night we three, Ned
! Butter Scotch and myself, should go
4 there and stay until morning, and if our
4 report was "no ghosts, she would not
/ say any more against the purchasing
/ scheme but if anything diaholical or
mysterious happened, that her father
was to give up the idea. Our consent
4 being asked we cheerfully gave it. and
as one time was as good as another, we
decided to make the experiment that
night
Armed each with stout stick and pill
low, we advanced upon the haunted
I dwelling about 9 o'clock, and were adj
i mltted by the man IN charge, whose
headquarters were in an adjoining build-
ing, which communicated with the
house by a long entry, at the end of
which was an iron door This door was
closed and bolted after us, and we we're
left to make our explorations in our own
way.
/, for one, did not expect to see any,
thing supernatural, but Mabel's stories
were very viYid, and l would have liked
to oblige her by seeing something I'M
canny. We had brought lantern with
us, and Butter-Scotch had very self
sacriticingly taken charge of it. So we
assembled the stairs, and made tour of
the upper floor. then descended, and
made another tour of the ground floor
and callar and Rnftar- Scotch consid1rod