Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1883-03-23

inexperienced people may believe that when
the house is alone by itself it behaves Just ex-
actly as it does when there are people in it
but this is delusion, as you will discover if
left alone in it at midnight, sitting up for the
rest Of the family. At this hour its true ma
ture will reveal itself. To catch it at its best
pretend to retire, put out the gas or lamp, and
go upstairs. Afterwards come down softly,
light no more than one lamp, go into the emp
to parlor and seat yourself at the table with
something to read. No sooner have you done
so than you will hear little chirp, chirp,
chirp along the top Of the room-a small
sound, but persistent 1t is evidently the
wallpaper coming of; and you decide, after
some tribulation, that if it does come off you
can't help it, and go on with your book.
As you sit with your book in your hand
you begin TO be quite sure some one is com
ing down stairs Squeak-squeak-sq squeak
What folly there is nobody up there to come
down but there-no. it is on the kitchen
stairs. Somebody is coming up. Squeak
snap Well, if It is a robber you might as
well face him. You get the poker and stand
with your back against the wall. Nobody
comes up. Finally you decide that you are
goose, put the poker down, get a magazine,
and try to read.
There, that's the door. You heard the lock
turn. They have got home. You run to the
body there But as you liDger the door-lock
gives click that makes you jump. By day
light neither lock nor stairs make any of these
noises unless touched or trodden on. You 60
back to the parlor in hurry, feeling that the
next thing you know something may grasp
you by the back hair. You try to remember
where you left off, but presently the table
cracks and snaps as if all the spirltualstc
raps were hidden in its mahogany. You do
- L saN. II.
it fdgets you, and you take an easy-chair and
lay the book on your knee. Your eyes wan
der up and down the page and you grow
dreamy, when apparently the bookcase fires
of a pistol; at least, loud, fierce crack
comes from the heart of that piece of furni-
ture-so loud, so herce that you start to your
feet trembling.
You cannot stand the parlor any longer, and
you go upstairs No sooner do you get there
than it seems to you that somebody is walk
ing on the roof. If the house is a detached
one andthe thing is impossible, that only rem
ders ii all the more mysterious. Nothing ever
moaned in the chimney before, but something
moans now. There is ghostly step in the
bath-roo (You find out afterwards that it
is the faucet dripping, but you do not dare to
| look now.) If you have gas, 1t bobs up and
down in a phantom dance. If you have a
lamp, it goes out in a blue explosion. If you
have a candle, a shroud plainly enwraps the
wick and falls toward YOU The blinds rattle
as if hand shakes them aud finally a dole
full cat begins to moan in the cellar. You do
not keep a cat, and this finishes you.
You pretend to read no longer, but, sitting
with towel over your head and face, hear
something below 60 "Shew shew shew !"
| like little saw, you believe in the old ghUst
| stories. Ten minutes later the door. bell rings,
the expected ones enter, the lights are lit, and
! perhaps something must be got out to eat.
| The others talk and tell where they have been,
aud ask if you have been lonesome. Aud not
a stair creaks no step is heard on the roof,
no click at the front door no bookcase or
table cracks The house has ON its company
manners but you have found out how it be-
haves when it is alone. - Portland Transcript.