The Forest Republican. [volume] (Tionesta, Pa.) 1869-1952, 1884-07-02

around with vague sense or something
horrible. / hate the sight of that tree,
with its distorted shape and bare skeleton
arms.n
rallied her upon being fanciful, but
promised that the Skeleton arms" of
which she complained should be cut off.
She sat silent for a moment, then said,
seriously:
"Charlie, did it ever occur to you that
certain objects in nature---trees for in
stance-may have an individual life of
their owni l don't mean the mere vege
table life, but sort of mysterious spirit
ual existence. Now, can't help fancy
ing that this tree is conscious of what is
going on beneath it-tnat it remembers
things which it has witnessed in It's long
life, and, were it able, could tell us some
horrible ghastly story of the past. You
may laugh, but assure you that | never
sit under this tree, even on a sunny noon
day, without feeling chill creeping over
me- and sense of something mysterious
and horrible, which makes me almost
afraid"
"Of course, ~ I said; "having once i'm
agined that the dead branches resemble
skeleton arms and associated them in
yard, you will be haunted with all sorts
of dismal thoughts and fancies in con-
nection with the tree. But since you
don't like it, Cecie, | will have this bug
bear removed, and we will build pretty
summer-house on the spot. ! will speak
to the men to morrow, when they come
to take down the wall"
The portion of the wall to which l al
luded separated our garden from that of
our next door neighbor. twas of stone,
but the mortar had fallen out and left it
little more than pile of loose stones,
which | feared might at any moment
topple down on the children, as they
played about it. So l concluded to have
it pulled down, and light wooden pal
ing placed in It's stead.
Over there, in the next house, lived an
old gentlemen and his wife, who passed
much of their time in their garden, cul-
tivating flowers and small garden fruits,
in which they appeared to take great de-
light. They had called on u.s. a cheerful
and kindly old couple and when the old
wall was pulled down and before the new
one was up, the way lay open to more
familiar intercourse.
One evening, by their invitation, we
stepped over into their garden to see a
collection of roses upon which Mr.. War
ren prided himself These duly admired,
the old lady expressed to Cecie her pleas
ure in having neighbors who were neigh
bors. She had lived ten years in theiI
present abode, and in that time had only
, twice seen Mrs. Gagel
"She wasn't always such a recluse,
! said the good lady. 81 remember that
when she and her husband first came
here, young married couple q was q
= child them, they were merry, gay and
fond of society. 1t was their daughter
! fate which so sadly changed them. You
have heard the story 2"
We had not been long in this town.
+, yet Cecie remembered to have heard
something about daughter of Mrs. Gage
running away to join lover at dis
tance, and being never afterward hearC
. of.
n "Her name was Emily" said Mrs
v Warren, ''and she was the handsomes
: girl in the town. She was an only child
! and had been all her life petted and in
: dulged, and allowed to have her OWL
: way. Such children don't generally turn
: out as well as they should do; and Emily
Gage rejected many good offers, to fal
4 in love with handsome and dissipateC
. fellow, who made his appearance her
4 for short time Being unable to give
a satisfactory account of himself, Mr.. Gag
q forbade his visiting his daughter, anC
n the two then agreed upon an elopement
; This was put stop to, and the youns
"a man shortly afterward left the place
svl 0l n nH
a the parents having cause to suspect tina
she was in secret correspondence wit
, him. And one morning she was no
! where to be found-only note slippe,
4 under the door of her parents sleeping
room informed them that she had gon
to join her lover - that she ha
: taken with her all her jewelry to
- gether with five hundred dollars, whic
# her father bad left in his writing-desk
since she would need money for travelin
II and other expenses. And that was tn
,e last that they ever knew about her."
a "But could they not find the youn
y man 2" asked Cecie.
- "They found him, after long search
1t but he denied all knowledge of Emil
al and her intended flight. They had col
responded, and she had assured hiI
4 that she would yet find means to joi
le him, but her letters had then ceased, nc
IS had he ever since heard from her. TIL
,e was his story. Some believed it, br
1T others, though nothing could ever /
proven against him, had dark suspicion
l of him. And the strangest thing wa
that, having once passed the garden wal
re every trace of the girl was utterly lost. "
g 1.-The garden wall ?"
N 81 forgot to mention that it was in thu
lt manner she escaped. She mounted tn
I'd sloping trunk of the old tree at the foe
I'd of the garden walk-the same undC
n which you so often sit--and then steppe
ne along its horizontal branches to the to
re of the wall. This was rendered evidel
IS, by the broken twigs and scattered leav'
at the foot of the tree. On the groun
>" outside the wall was found her shaw