Middletown transcript., 1882-02-17

trees, only inner and greener. Inc every
grass and flowers might be the same ;
and here am I, old, faded and lonely,
and my handsome, bright-eyed father
dead, and all I care for gone. I wish I
was gone, also. | think people who
have not seen each other for forty years
need not seek each other again. Iwish
they would not come to me after being
the same as dead for forty years. It is
precisely like seeing ghosts.
She looked as though she wanted to
cry.
nobody wants to see-not even those
who promised to remember him for
ever.
"Forty years is much worse than for
ever," said she and fifty-six is a
terribly unromantic age"
+" Yes it is, = said he i; "but it is
good age for ghosts. By the way, do
you like ghost stories :? Let me tell
you one. Once there was a ghost
now think of it he wasn't always
ghost he was boy once-the son of
miller. He worked in the mill and was
tlouTy and white as ghost should be
most of the time but he was happy
and gay, and many things happened as
he liked. One Of them was when
certain rich farmer in the neighborhood
came to the mill. The grain his SER
want brought in the great wagons, but
he, the farmer, used to drive to the
mill with his little daughter in the gig
beside him.
"She was pretty child, with long
curls and her eyes were big and brown.
She made pretty picture in her white
dresses and bright ribbons, and she
came when she was so young that she t
used to hold out her hands to this boy
and cry: Come here, little boy. Show
me where the flour sifts FROM For
that was what she liked to see best
the flour sitting through the fine muslin.
Every week she used to come, until the
miller sent his boy away to school.
When he came home again she was a
girl of sixteen, prettier than ever, and |
she remembered asking him to let her
see the flour sift, and she talked to him
while her father was attending to his
business and the days when she did
not come the boy cared nothing for,
and the days that brought her were
marked and picked out as blessed
days
" After awhile he got over the shy
ness that kept him from going to see
her, and went and she was not dis
pleased. She was the mistress of the
house, for her mother died young. She
used to make tea for him on Sunday
afternoon, and after tea her father
would put handkerchief over his head
and fall into a nap. Then they used
to whisper together. Long after the
poor boy came to be ghost he remem-
bered those evenings when he was a
bright-cheeked young fellow, the son of
a rich miller, and had the hope Of
marrying the girl he loved before his
eyes.
"He thought the girl loved him as
well as he loved her, and he had no
fears of the future, no thought that
trouble could come to him in any way,
until misfortune overlook his father.
The good old man failed the mill was
sold there was nothing but anxiety at
home. At last worse came-his father
died soon after his mother. He was
very sad; he was poor also but he
had hope, for he was beloved by the
one he loved.
cone day he went to her for COM
fort. He remembered the day ever
after. The low-built, old-fashioned
house, the great oaks, the flower gar
den. the girl in her white dress and blue
ribbons who came to greet him. He
was full of life still, but that night,
when he turned away from the house,
he was a ghost-the miserable ghost of
his former self, for he had no longer
any faith in love. Standing before him,
pale and sad, with tears in her eyes, it
is true, he had heard her who had made
the world bright for him say, 1t is
my fathers will that we should part.
I cannot disobey my old parents; that
she had told him that she loved him as
we'll as ever; but he did not believe
her. He thought his poverty had turned
her heart from him, that she had never
felt tenderly toward him, and he left
her in anger, believing all that had
been said and written about the false
hood Of women. Yes, he was turned
into ghost.
"He might have known she was as
unhappy as he was" said Miss Carney,
from behind her handkerchief but
what can a girl do when her father
threatens to curse her, and she the only
child he has Only nothing could make
her marry any one else-nothing. That
she could do at least. :"
"But the poor old ghost did not
know that 4 said the old man. ut
wandered away broken-hearted. It
found it's way to the sea first, and then
into battle. For years it was
wretched ghost, only wishing to die !