Shenandoah herald. [volume] (Woodstock, Va.) 1865-1974, 1882-05-03
Behind Mioerva's Shield,

Ry FRANCES C. SPARIIAWK.
Homer Ashton one autumn evening
listened TO stories of witches and ghosts
told around him. and Joined in them'
until he felt an occasional shiver creep
mo down his back. Not that he be-
leyed in the supernatural. but the
frelioht into which he sat looking gre"
nleasanter TO him than the corners Oh
tbe GREAT rooms for lamps had been
ban,shed to accord with the subject un-
der discussion. and it seemed that the
shadows Pickering behind the young
people ground about the CRATE OF oiaz'
mo coal were massive and weird, and
that when one glanced at them side
WAYS suddenly, there was somelhli 2
about them like ghostly visitors. When
be faced them, 20 be sure, they were
only ordinary shadows. Homer was
asbamed of himself; he was afraid his
nerves were unsteady aud resolved to
test them, He knew a way to do II.
Near The place at which he was stay
ing. an English country house, wese
the runs of the older part Ola castle
sad TO have been built in the time o'
he ;rusades. The whole castle was al
nresept uninhabited, but the part that
was allowed to fall into hopeless decay
was the width OF the courtyard away
from tie rest of the house. Probably
il had once been connected with Il Dl
bindings which had formed three 'ldes
of a hollow square, but, il so, 1t hao
been left out in the changes made al
different times. aud now it was roofiess'
The walls were crumbled, aud the under
cronnd norton was all that made am
nrciepce TO habnation, and offered a
.n table home to the unearthly beings
who were said to roam IN ii, i'r a
dampness covered all the stones and
4
the air had deadly chill. But these
facts seemed conclusions from the ma
ture of things rather than the results o.
observation, for Homer could not Enc
ANYBODY who had explored it.
Ghosts ought really 10 be forgiven
good many feulls, because they are II
General so selfish about selecting homes
nobody else wants.
That evening as Ashton connected
the reports of the place itself VIII
stories of sights aud sounds around 1t
lie found himself yielding so much to
the Influence OF gossip that he deter
mined 10 shake off the weakness and to
trv what stuff he was made ot. lie
would stand in those haunted halls anC
summon the ghosts aud sec what woui'
happen. He knew well enough that
would be nothing.
But be DID not tell lis plan 10 'h'
others. he said merely that he was 90
mo for a walk to blow away tins
phostly atmospher by little fresh air
Nobody volunteered to accompany him
nisbt had never seemed more dlstasie
g fol to them all. They only looked a
,.ch other Significantly as lie left them
aud said:
Another Americanism.'
There is an unreasopins element
,buman nature which assumes every III
diyiduality of a forsisner to be
national Characteristic. DIR. Ashton
whom the son Of the house had becom
ACQUAINTED with in Londen and brough
home with him for visit. was to hl
entertainers an epitome of Amenc'
and it must be confessed that at III
end of a week they had come to have
good opinion OF that country.
As Home walked on rapidly he sa'
On occasional star IN the sky, but
seemed as if he meyer could get out
, tho shadow of the trees, there were
many Of them.
He soon came to the ruin mil
away, opened the heavy gait and b'
ON 10 descend the long fight OF step
loo,ining into the corridors and room
underp round. What could the ol
n,ace have been used for. Did monk
come here for prayers and penances G
were these dungeons where capuV'
. taken in the petty warfare Of thos
. tmes felt the personal vengeance
e their captorsY He thought OF the on
!. described in 'Ivanboe,' into which lsaa
T. the lew was thrown, damp, dark, huu
With chains and sbackles, and where
the ring of one set offetterS we're !"
moulding human bones. 1t was L
wonder ghosts were said to haunt
place like that. -,
Tn the midst of these thoughts Il
cate he had left open swung 10 with
clang, shutting out earthly things D
hind him. Step bv step he went ooN
tbe stairs Into blackness to which u
might outside was twilight. Sometlm'
II re seemed to hear q sound, but wheh