The Columbian. [volume] (Bloomsburg, Pa.) 1866-1910, 1882-12-08
Alone in the House.

When the house is all alone by it.
self, inexperienced persons may believe
that il behaves exactly as it does when
there are people in it, but that is de.
lusion, as you will discover If you are
ever left alone in it at midnight sitting
up for the rest of the family; at this
hour its true disposition will reveal it
self To catch it at its best, pretend to
retire, put out the gas or the lamp and
90 upstairs. Afterwards, come down
softly, light no more than one lamp,
go into the empty parlor and seat your
self at table with something to read.
No sooner have you done so than
You will hear little chip, chip, chip,
along the top of the room---a small
sound but persistent. 1t is evidently the
wall paper coming off, and you decide,
after some tribulation, that if it does
come off you can't help it, and go on
with your book AS you sit with your
book in your hand you begin to be
quite sure that some one is coming
down stairs, squeak-squeak-squeak !
What folly! There is nobody up there
to come down; but there-no, it is on
the kitchen stairs. Somebody is COM
ing up. Squeak-squeak Well, if it is
robber you might as well face him.
You get the poker,and stand with your
back against the wall Nobody comes
up. Finally you decide that you are a
goose, put the poker down, get mag
azine and try to read.
There, that's the door, You heard
the lock turn? They are coming home.
You run to the back door, unlock and
unbolt it, and peep out Nobody there 7
But, as YOU lnger, the door lock gives
click that makes you jump. BY day
light neither lock nor stairs make any
OF these noises unless they are touched
or trodden on. You go back to the
parlor in hurry, with feeling that
the next thing you know something may
catch you by the back hair, and you
try to remember where you left off.
Now it is the table that snaps and cracks
as if all the spirituaist knocks were
hidden in its mahogany. You do not
lean on it heavily without this result,
but it fidgets you, and you take an easy
chair and put the book on your knees
Your eyes wander up and down the
page and you grow dreamy, when, ap.
parently, the bookcase fires off pistol
AT least loud, fierce crack comes
from the heart of that piece of furniture
so loud, so fierce, that you jump to
your feet trembling. You cannot stand
the parlor any more. You go upstairs
No sooner do you get there, than il
seems that some body is walking on the
roof If the house is a detached one,
and the thing is impossible, that makes
it all the more mysterious. Nothing
ever moaned in the chimney before, but
something means now There is a
ghostly step in the bathroom. You
find out afterwards it is the tap dripping
but you do not dare to look at that
time. And it is evident that there is
something up the chimney-you would
not like to ask what.
IT you have gas it bobs up and down
in a phantom dance. If you have a
lamp it goes out in blue explosion. If
you have candle shroud plainly en-.
raps the wick and falls toward you The
blinds shake as if hand clutched them
and, finally, doleful cat begins to
moan in the cellar. You do not keep a
cat, and this finishes you. You pre-.
tend to read no longer, and, sitting
with towel over your head and face
and hearing something below go "shew,
shew, shew," like a little saw, you be.
lieve in the old ghost stories Ten minu
tes later the bell rings,the belated ones
come home, the lights are lit; perhaps
something must be got out to eat Peo
pie talk and tell where they have been
and ask if you are lonesome. And not
stair cracks. No step is heard on the
roof; no click is heard to the front door
Neither bookcase nor table cracks
The house has on its company manners
only you have found out how it be
haves when it is alone.