Wessington Springs herald. (Wessington Springs, Aurora County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1891, 1883-10-27
THE EAST WING.

here relate the story of q dream and
its effect. The cause will probably be
accounted for in years to come, when
dreams will be considered a rational
subject of conversation. It may be
read with interest by those who fire.
quented San Francisco society in early
days, as the actors were movers in the
little circle that then existed.
The house in which the events took
place stands on the north side of Clay
Street Hill. Since 1 lived there (ten
years ago) the place has been re-
modeled;. but in those days it was q
dreary looking edifjce. and the street
was cut through to only block beyond,
and was unpaved, which made it very
rock, and rough looking for a place
which was considered quite fine for
those days. Moreover, the house had
been standing there fifteen years when
l went into it, making it seem quite
like an old family residence. So no
one thought it at all strange that there
should be both a ghost and a history
connected with it.
AS I said before, after I left the whole
place was remodeled, and, l should have
added, particularly the east wing. This
part of the house once had windows,
and was entirely covered with running
vines, and almost hidden by the broad
spreading branches of an old tree-a
tree you would expect to see in a grave
yard, sheltering q tomb, but certainly
not in the garden of a family residence.
And, indeed, it used to seem to me as if
the eccentric person who lived there
had chosen to attach to his home the
last resting place of the family bones.
To me, at least, who knows the his
tory of the place, and had even been
one of the actors who have given the
neighborhood a dark reputation. this
corner of the house is a tomb, and can
never be made to look like anything
else.
Before going further I must state
some uninteresting events in my own
life, the most painful of which was the
sudden and mysterious disappearance
of my mother before I was yet two
years old. My fathers life seemed
ruined by this loss, and, regardless of
the fact that his only child would be
left alone if he did not try to live for
her, he seemed willing to die, and 1 can
only remember him as an invalid for
whom | felt some W and a great deal
OF respect, and whom never for a
moment, even after his death, could ]
possibly disobey.
The house in which I lived was some
distance ovcr the sand hills from the
one Of which l write; but from my nur
sery window 1 could see distinctly the
old Clay Street barn as | then de-
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weary of watching the bay, or the ships
sailing through the Golden Gate, or the
log, which, to my imaginative mind,
seemed like some huge genie that would
at last take me up and along with it, ]
would turn my eyes to the old house on
the hill, and weav strange stories to
myself about the dark corners and
weird rooms which l felt sure formed
Its interior.
Its owner, John Finger, was a week.
" visitor at our home, and was, with
the exception of Briggs, my fathers
lawyer and my subsequent guardian,
the only person who ever sat at table
with Qs in my fathers house. From
childhood l felt an instructive fear OF
this person, and, much to my fathers
disgust, I always insisted upon running
away whenever he appeared.
lean remember yet the awful thoughts
that used to come to me whenever,
while standing at my window huggging
my doll, / would see him come out and
shut the door behind him. 1t was the
particular manner in which he did this
that frightened me, for it always seemed
to me that something or some n held
1t on the inside, for he would frequently
reopen it and shut it again, as if he
were angry. But perhaps the door wa
heavy or Ifanciful, but l always held my
doll a little closer, and would whisper
"I'd rather be carried of by the fog
than be shut up in thathouse-wouldn
YOU, dearp"
AS l became older, the fear actually
grew upon me that some time, in some
~lnexplieable manner, I should wake uI
and find myself shut in behind tina
heavy door, and. at last, when my father
died and left in his will the wish that
should marry MIR. Finger, it seemed
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