Juniata sentinel and Republican. [volume] (Mifflintown, Juniata County, Pa.) 1873-1955, 1889-06-05

stood near the head Of the old-fashioned |
high-posted French bedstead, which, !
in its ancient appearance, was in per- |
feet keeping with everything else have |
described.
Before preceding me to the haunted |
chamber, the deacon inquired if the
bed had been made since it was last
tumbled. And here l might as well
explain the nature or the strange visi-
tation. After the death of Mrs. Grail's
sister-Mrs. Childs-no one had ven
tured to occupy the chamber as a sleep
ing-Toom, notwithstanding every morn
ing II was discovered that the bed had
had mysterious occupant over night.
For a time this circumstance was a
source of great perpleXity to the worthy
deacon and his family, but not till
some weeks after the death of Mrs.
Childs did they attribute these noctur-
nal intrusions to ghostly visItant.
The ghostly revelation, as 1 was told,
occurred in this wise. When it came
their turn TO board the teacher the
ensuing term, the haunted chamber
WAS assigned to her. She retired TO
rest that night, uninhuenced by any
superstitious dread, for nothing had
been said TO her regarding the myste-
rious yisitations. This remiSsneSS Oh
the part of the Grails might be attri-
buted to the fact that the family had
| already settled upon the conviction that
the bed must have been disturbed by
the nightly visits of a bat of enormous
size, which had been a great pet and
favorite of the late Mrs. Childs, and
which had mysteriously disappeared up
the chimney on the night of her de-
cease. and had since kept itself strictly
nj trnT ha r..aEf of hsa fFnF rot q
the house, refusing all attempts on their
part at the establishment of familiar or
friendly relationship, and ignoring its
late place of abode altogether i'll the
day time.
or the night in question, after the
teacher had retired, and, as near as she
could judge, not far from midnight,
| she was aroused from her slumbers by
the painful consciousness of some mys-
terious and ghostly presence in the
room. She started up In alright, and
| gazed at the intruder white spectral
! form standing by her bedside, gazing
down on her with a blank, stony gaze.
she shrank back 10 the wall, shIver-
ing, while a cold sweat stood out in
large drops on her forehead. She closed
heI eyes, and drew the bed-clothes over
her face, oppressed. as one might be,
| by the weight of some horrible incubus.
The last distinct impression that she
recollected was that the figure advanced
upon her. and forcibly removed the
bed-clothing. 1t vas the last act of the
apparition that she could recall, which
was in evidence that she must have
! become insensiDle at that very moment.
| How long her swoon continued she had
no definite means of knowing, but when
| she recovered consciousness, she was
| sensible that the ghoStly presence had
vanished from the room.
She saw nothing further to disturb
her that night, but in the morning she
noticed very distinctly the impress a
of human form Cn the fore side of the
| bed.
'As you may suppose, this story pro-
| duCed a powerful effect, not only upon
| the inmates of the house, but upon the
| public mind generally; and hence it was
that this unpretending, commonplace
! old farmhouse came to have the repu-
tation of being haunted The room,
| from that time to the present, had
never been occupied either by visitor
or any member of the Grail family, so
! far as the Grail family had any knowl-
edge; but, strange to relate, nearly
| every day, for the last seven years, the
! bed in the haunted chamber had been
! found tumbled i'll the morning in a
| fashion that would have convinced any
| rational mind that diSembodled spirits
! were not so impalpable as to be devoid
| of certain amount of specific gravity.
Had they dared to give offense to
the ghost, they would have shut up the
| chamber altogether, and thus put an
| end to its nocturnal perambulations
! through that particular part of the
/ house; but so long as the strange visit
| ant was content to cOnfine itself and its
| dOings to this particular chamber, they
| felt degree of safety that they would
not have experienced had they rashly
attempted in any way to interdict its
| ghOstly rights and privileges. The
room was never visited, except on the
Lords day, when the worthy deacon,
| screwing up his courage to the highest
| pitch, and piously armed with a we'll
thumbed copy of the Bible, would stalk
IN in advance of Susan and her aunt,
and while they were hurriedly making
| up tie bed, would turn to a certain
| chapter which bore especial reference
| to supernatural yisitations, and read
aloud in a tremulous voice, till the
much-dreaded task was performed,
when they would all three hurry from
the room, as though they dreaded al
actual collision with the ghost in broad
daylight.
AS 1 have said, in spite of my as
sumed skepticism on the subject of
| ghosts, and my yaunted Indifference of
their power to molest or iniure me, L
felt far from being comfortable in my
new quarters. An air of gloomy DESC
lation seemed to pervade the deserted
chamber, and the very silence of the
loom became painfully oppressive after
the first few minutes. L had eXtin-
| guished the candle before getting into
bed, and now in the darkness and
silence which surrounded me L was
beginning to regret that / had done so.
In my restless excitement, and the
| vague expectancy of a something yet
| to come, which / shuddered at inter-
nally but could not clearly define, |
found slumber impossible TO court.
The leaden fingers of sleep refused for
long time to weigh down my eyelids.
Il think 1t must have been near mid
night when / at last sank into a half
| unconscious browse. How long might
have remained in that tSemi-unconSclous
condition l do not know, when of a
sudden became fully aware of a slight
rustling movement near me- 1t WAS
like the faintest possible football, ac-
companied by the imperfect sound of
moving drapery. l opened my eyes
with start, and a sudden shiver ran
through me. IghtnIng-l ke, as the
electric current is conveyed along the
/ wires
The room was not so dark but cou'd
distinctly see white object moving
toward me, about half way between the
door and the bed. 1t approached with
! Il.
and with an indefnable sense of dread
stealing over me, and scarcely daring
to breathe, shrank back closer TO the
wall.
For a moment the white figure re-
manned immovable after reaching my
bedside. Then It deliberately turned
down the bed-clothes and crawled in
The soft, regular breathing that now
followed convinced me that the intru-