River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1882-01-26
A FASCINATING GHOST.


noon. =
In the old days / had been book
keeper for the late concern of Skin
flint, Starvehimout & Co., and while
with them | had been getting a good
salary, and, to my sorrow be it said,
lived pretty well up to it; so as | made
nothing by the failure of the concern,
and lost my place as we'll had come
down very low. | had saved a little,
more by good luck than from fore
thought, and this little, used with the
strictest economy, and added to by a
few dollars made here and there in odd
ways, was all that had kept me alive
for eighteen months However.
didn't feel quite disposed to go to the
dogs yet, for there was always a chance
of something turning up in great city
ike New York.
As l looked around my room that
evening / realized how bare it was of
either furniture or adornments; how
unlike. All, well, there was my pa
ger; and l unfolded it with all the
glee of child over i new story book.
There was, of course, the usual politi-
cal news, the usual number of railroad
accidents and criminal proceedings;
there were items of interest to invest
ors and theater-goers and travellers; but
nothing for me. had no money to in
vest, or for theaters, or travelling. So l
skipped all that and went on to the adj
vertisements, and the only one of them
all worth reading twice was the adver-
tisement quoted above.
| read it two or three times, and then
decided it was worth trying. So |
hunted up sheet of paper and adj
dressed X-as follows:
d" Nh Dear Mr., Mrs. or Mss ~: 1 notice
ysur advertisement in to-day's issue Of the Eren-
ing Post. My handwriting you can see for your
self. My spelling / think is usually correct, and
there is no doubt am gentleman. As to salary
/ don't know what to say don't wish to value
my services at mere than they're worth. Should
you mean by remain in employers house, /
would be boarded and lodged at your expense, my
price = that is asking price-is FIVE dollars a
week.
Yours respectfully,
JAMES W WoLcoTT."
The next afternoon | heard from my
friend X, who proved to be man. His
letter ran thus:
JAMES W. WoLcoTT, ESQ:
q" Nh Dear Sir You may be gentleman,
write a good hand and know how to spell but
you're fool. / nclOse sixty-three cents, the fare
to -. You will take the Z A. NJ. train tO-mOr-
row morning from Grand Central Depot, and
when you arrive at -, ask for my carriage as
it will be there to meet you.
Yours, etc,
SoL. HuMPREYs."
Sol. Humphreysl-the last man in the
world would voluntarily have written
to, and for employment, too! Two
years before l had a very nice little
Irritation with pretty Mabel Humph-
reys, and it had gone so far that if the
crash in my affairs had not occurred, /
believe there might have been an I'M
derstandiug, if not an engagement.
But as it was put away all thoughts
of love making and dropped pretty
Mabel very suddenly, without any kind
of an understanding, and | had not
seen her since. And now to think |
had fairly got myself into it againl
But, reflected, might not see much
of Mabel after all. So much the better.
Bread and butter was a necessity and l
must go and make the best of it.
The next morning | caught the train,
but missed my breakfast, and by the
time | reached the house l was de-
cidedly hungry.
Mr.. Humphreys met me at the door,
and | was pleased to see he did not
up his eyeglasses, and inspected me
from head to foot.
so you're James w. Wolcott. are
you, young MANI
| told him ne was not mistaken. i
always had that name-bOrn with 1T, L
believed
"And you think you're gentle
MANI"
l begged his pardon-didn't think
anything about it; it was self-evident
fact.
The old fellow grinned. Suppose
YOU come in and have some breakfast.
You haven't had any, suppose"
1 said | had not.
"Well, come in and have some"
After breakfast Mr.. Humphreys led
the way into the library and motioned
me to take chair, while he explained
what my work was to be. He had
been writing history, or text book of
ferns-he was an enthusiastic botanist
and had wanted it copied for the
press. The work of rewriting the
whole thing legibly was more than he
wished to undertake so he had adver-
tised for an amanuensis.
After this had been explained to me,
Mr.. Humphreys started up. Get
your hat, Mr.. Wolcott. | want to show
you around"
All through the house and all over
the place he took me, and when he got
to the farther extremity of the grounds
he paused, and pointing to huge stone
house beyond said: I'm trying to
buy that house; I'm very anxious to
get it, hut my daughter Objects
| asked him why she objected.
"Well, you see, it hasn't been occu-
pied lately, and she says it's gloomy
saws it's haunted, and she wouldn't like
to live in it"
'Niss Humphreys can't really believe
that to be true answered.
IL don't know whether she does OF
not. Shes away now. but she'll be
home tomorrow, and perhaps she'll be
more reasonable.
The next day Mabel srrived. She met
me politely, went through the intro
duction gracefully, and acted as if she
had never seen me before. There was
not the slightest halfglance of recogni-
tion-she evidently intended to consid
er ME recent acquaintance. With
curious inconsistency | could not hell
being little disappointed, while at the
same time 1 was immensely relieved
/ don't know what / had expected
start, blush, just the shy. pleased look
of girl toward an old friend not We
forgotten; or was it hsughtiness, hardly
yelled anger, disgust? Whatever hac
expected, got nothing at all but pleas
ant, meaningless words, great polite
ness, great civility. had nothin.
whatever to do with, and could have nj
interest in, the intimacy that tormerl.
existed between Mabel Humphreys ant
James W. Wolcott; he was one MAJ
and | was another. And so the day
went on, and she was always friendl,
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
baptismal name was William, but h