The McCook tribune. (McCook, Neb.) 1886-1936, 1888-10-19
UNCLE ~HUGH'SSECRET

wearied almost beyond endurance
If Uncle Hugh had had his way
every visitor to Mount Graham
would have come all the a by
carriage, but fortunately it was be.
yond even his power to enforce that,
What he could do he had done, how.
ever. Several years before, there
had been a prospect of having q
railway station within ten miles Of
the place. The very idea made Uncle
Hugh frantic. Tooth and nail he
fought it, and, alas, was successful.
The railway was turned aside, and
though the struggle had left him
Strengthened in circumstances, al
most impoverished, l do not believe
MAT he had ever felt one regret.
Asthe carriage swayed and jolted
along, and the old coachman nodded
on his box, with full faith in the
Hme-tried fidelity of his fat horses. |
tried to beguile the tedium of the
way by recalling the incidents Of the
n summer which l had spent with
Uncle Hugh inmy childhood.
Mount Graham was a quaint, old
fashioned place, built long before the
revolution, and the queer stories
which were told about it had been
She romance of my childhood. Of
curse it was peopled by ghosts of
every shape and hue. There must
have been a regular colony ofghosts,
for there was one devoted to every
spot in the house from cellart attic.
There was the spectral carriage, which
was heard, but never seen, to stop at
the front door in the middle of the
saight. A British officer haunted one
Bedroom, and a White Lady anoth-
or. ct would be interestingto know
whether they ever met, and upon
what terms they were in private.)
Black Nancy held possession of the
garrett, where she still groaned and
Aanked her chains as she had done a
hundred years before when she was a
living maniac. Indians and negroes
had played a part in the early histo-
Try Of the house. 1t was before the
Revolution, when the country was
still an unbroken forest, that old
Colonel Graham conceived the idea
of building a homestead here. He
went himself to select a site, and left
a gang of black men behind him,
vIith provisions enough to last
8hrough the summer and autumn.
But, alas! the winter came that year
with unprecedented suddenness and
severity, shutting in the poor black
men to what seemed certain death.
Fainly were exploring parties sent to
Sheir relief. The cruel cold bafiled
all efforts, and the negroes were,
perforce, left to their fate. In the
spring Col. Graham went to the scene
of the tragedy. He expected to hear
only the moan of the forest and the
dash of the waterfall. He heard
these indeed, but mingled with them
were the ring of hammers and the
elamor OF cheerful voices. HeeXpect-
ed to find ten moldering skeletons,
perhaps with the mark of the cruel
tomahawk upon them. He found in
stead ten of the fattest and joiiest
darkies that his eyes ever rested
upon. Instead of fighting the Indians
Ehey had fraternized with them, and
as soon as the weather allowed red
and blackmen went cheerfully to
work upon the new house. And that
was why ghostly negroes and In
~6ians stalked amicably through hall
and corridor.
The house vas a plain one enough
"a long, low rambling building, with
q pizza whose roof extended above
the second-story windows, wonder
fully shaded with grape-vines and
Gumpet-creepers. Inside all that was
queer and cramped, according to our
modern ideas. The rooms were tiny,
and opened oddly out OF each other
by narrow folding-doors. The ceilings
we're low, some plain, others crossed
by huge beams. Theredeep cushioned
1indow-seats in the small-paned win
dows. which still bore upon their
faithful transparent breasts the
name of by-gone bellies. "Miss Polly"
and 'Miss Betty" had been dust for
many a year, but the names which
their admirers had scratched upon
Che fragile glass were as fresh as the
day they were cut. And there was
not a decent closet in the house.
That, of course, a quite absurd,
but Uncle Hugh never could be made
70 see it.
cit served my fathers, and will
serve me-" he said, and never could
be induced to make the slightest al
iteration.
The furniture suited the house.
There were great hair-cloth-covered
sofas with frames of solid mahogany,
some with brass trimmings, others
ec~uriously carved into the form of
scaly dragons. There were bureaus
With claw feet and brass handles on
the drawers, and great clumsy four
post bedsteads, with heavily carved
legs and shrouding curtains. The
tailest man could not open the upper
drawers of the bureaus or step into
the beds unaided. Therefore step