The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1882-12-29
A Woman Alone in the House.

When the house Is all alone by itself,
inexperienced persons may believe that
1t behaves exactly as it does when there
are people in it; but that is delusion,
Us 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 itself.
To catch it ut its best. pretend to re-
tire, put out the gas or the lamp. and
60 up stairs. Afterwards, come down
softly, light no more than one lamp, go
into the empty parlor and seat yourself
at q table with something to read.
No sooner that you have 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 wallpaper coming of. and you de-
eide, after some tribulation, that If it
does come off. you can't help it, and go
OH 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-sq What folly!
There's nobody up there to come down;
but there-no, 1t is on the kitchen
stairs. Somebody is coming up.
Squeak-snap! Well. il It is a rob-
Der you might as we'll face him. You
get the poker and stand with our back
against the wall Nobody comes up.
Finally, you decide that you are a
goose, put the poker down, get maya
zine 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
here!
But. as you linger. the door lock
gives click that makes you jump.
BY daylight neither lock nor stairs
make any of these noises unless they
are touched or trodden on.
You 60 back to the parlor in a hurry.
with the feeling that the next thing you
know something may catch you by the
back hair, and you try to remember
where you left of.
Now it is the table that snaps and
cracks as If all the spiritualist knocks
were hidden in its mahogany. You do
not lean on it heavily without this re-
suit, but it fidgets you, and you take an
easy chair and put the book on Your
knee.
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 furni-
ture-so loud, so fierce, that you jump
to your feet trembling.
You cannot stand the parlor any
more. You go up stairs.
No sooner do you get there than it
seems to you that somebody is walking
on the roof. If the house is 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 q ghostly step in the bath
room. You find out afterwards it is
the tap dripping, but You do not dare
look at that time.
And 1t is evident that there is some
thing up the chimncy-you would not
like to ask what.
II you have gas it hobs up and down
in phantom dance. If you have
lamp it goes out in blue explosion.
II you have candle q shroud plainly
enwraps the wick and falls towards
you.
The blinds shake as if hand clutch
ed them; and. finally, doleful cat be-
gins to moan in the cellar. You do not
keep cat, and this finishes YOU.
You pretend to read no longer, and
sitting with towel over your head and
face, and hearing something below 20
''shew, shew, shew." like little saw.
you believe in the old ghost stories.
Ten minutes later the bells ring; the
belated ones come home: the lights are
lit; perhaps something must be got to
eat. People 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 to the front
door. Neither bookcase nor table cracks.
The house has on its company man.
ners-oniy you have found out how it
behaves when it is alone.