Springfield globe-republic. (Springfield, Ohio) 1884-1887, 1886-10-31
A HALLOWEEN ROMANCE.
She Found Her Lover and Died With
Him-A Story of Humanity
Briefly Told.
The Pale Face in the MirrOr-The Jerrod
Bruce Who Had Received the Estate
A Girls Mad Love and It's
Cost of Two Lives.

1t was raw night outside. The wind
chOppy gusts that swept round the corner
! in short. startled. sudden shrieks, that were
infinitely more terrifying than the steady
| laughing and moaning of the blasts usually
are. The light fall of snow that had begun
at 6 o'clock had turned to sleet and then TO
rain. and it was now coming down dispirit-
| ingly, except when the sharp wind caused
| ii TO strike suddenly and noisily agar st
| the windows. The shutters banged and the
house groaned and CT ok ID with these un-
canny reports that are char
acteristic of frame buildings in chang
| ing weather. 1t was All Halloween.
/ Not such night as a madcap crew Of girls
! and boys would select to ''tick-tack' at the
windows Of nervous people, or to eliminate
| gates, or bang the doors Of Objectionable
/ tenants with cabbage-stalks. Not that
kind Of night. But sullen, wild, ghostly
night, haunted with the spirit of the rest
less wind. The sky overhead suggested 8
pail so black and fOrbidding was it. The
| only street lamp near the house fluttered in
the wind, gasped, and was swallowed by
the darkness and storm.
Within. a great log fire chattersd and
gossIpped in the open fireplace. 1t wa.
| the last night of the autumn AND
the season was dying with a
chill that made fire welcome companion,
1t was a good, big, sensible sitting-roOm thai
the fire lit up-a sort of a shabby old room
that looked as if il had worn out rather thar
rusted out The ceiling was low and pa
pered in light blue. The carpet was ricl
ingram, but a very frayed place was worr
| in front of the sofa, and the figure was din
in some places. There was a great book
case, and two wicker sewing stands oI
three legs each, and four big, capacious
looking easy chairs, made of leather, which
had been occupied so much tina
the imprint of a human figure hsC
had become permanent to them. The Gre
ton table-covers and curtains had become {
degree faded. Everything was a dull un
personal gray; nothing was new, or rich
or bright but 1t looked good, and homely
and inviting. The great fire set merr!
shsdOwy hobgobins dancing in all corners
Halloween, ghOstly, gloomy, portentiou
without Halloween, bright, CHEEKY, in
viting within.
Four girls occupied all the old easy chair
in the room, and were part Of the SlaC
humor that prevailed. -Four New Eng
land girls with the breath of tn
salt sea wind warmed int
ruddy glows on their cheeks. Four Ameri
can Junos, such as would have made tn
apple Of Paris shrivel into q crab out o
sheer indecision, had it to make decision
between them. Bess Parker was the mos
mercurial and individual, but Kate Bruc
was scarceleY less ready. Nell Waylan,
had the most marvellous complexion, bu
Grace Stanley's dimple made her no les
| irresistible. 1t was a great quartette-fou
girl chums. All alone they were, too, in
big lonely house in Maine village on thi
wild, ghostly night Jerrod Bruce was
minister. He had buried his wife ON IN
third day after little Kate had locke,
at the winter world for the first time Sh
was brave girl, like her father. She wa
strong and healthy and clean-limbed. snt
night, when Jerrod Bruce had set out tC
drive to village eighteen miles to the nortl
to spend the last hour of all at the bedsid,
of dying member of his flock, he had tel
no pang or doubt at leaving her in the grea
house, with no ''menfolks" to watch over