The united opinion. [volume] (Bradford, Vt.) 1881-1970, 1889-02-08

A strange t0oEtng UguTe st1tfe" ""Io "'e
room.
robust, clothed in the old Flemish
fashion. He had on kind of short
cloak, with garment under it, belted
round the waist; trunk hose, with great
punches or bows at the knees; and pair
of russell boots, very large at top, and
standing widely from his legs. His hat
was broad and slouched, with feather
trailing over one side. His iron gray
hair hung in thick masses on his neck,
and he had short grizzled beard. He
walked slowly round the room as it ex-
amining that all was safe, then, hanging
his hat on a peg beside the door, he sat
down in the elbow chair, and, leaning
his elbow on the table, he fixed his eyes
on Dolph with an unmoving and deaden-
ing stare.
Dolph was not naturally coward;
but he had been brought up in an i'm
plicit belief in ghosts and COLLINS. A
thousand stories came swarming to his
mind, that he had heard about this
building; and, as he looked at this
strange parsonage, with his uncouth
garb, his pale visage, his grizzly beard,
and his fixed, staring, fish like eye, his
teeth began to chatter, his hair to rise on
his head and cold sweat to break out
all over his body. How long he re-
manned in this situation he could not
tell, for he was like one fascinated. He
could not take his gaze off from the spec
ter; but lay staring at him with his
whole intellect absorbed in the cOntem-
plation. The old man remained seated
behind the table without stirring or
turning an eye, always keeping dead,
steady glare upon Dolph. At length the
household cock from a neighboring
farm clapped his wings, and gave a loud
cheerful crow that rung over the fields.
and took down his hat from the peg; the
was heard to go slowly down the stair
when he had got to the bottom, all was
earnestly; counted every football; lis
tened and listened if the steps should re-
turn-until, exhausted by watching and
agitation, he fell into a troubled sleep.
Daylight again brought fresh courage
and assurance. He would fain have
considered all that had passed as mere
dream; yet there stood the chair in
which the unknown had seated himself;
there was the table on which he had
leaned; there was the peg on which he
had hung his hat, and there was the
door, locked precisely as he himself had
locked it, with the chair placed against
it. He FASTENED down stairs and exam
ined the doors and windows; all were ex-
actly in the same state in which he had
left them, and there was no apparent
way by which any being could have en-
tered and left the house without leaving
some trace behind. "Pooh!" said Dolph
to himself, sit was all dream;'-but it
would not do; the more he endeavOred
to shake the scene off from his mind, the
more it haunted him.
Though he persisted in strict silence
as to all that he had seen or heard, yet
his looks betrayed the uncomfortable
night he had passed. 1t was evident
that there was something wonderful hid
den under this mysterious reserve. The
doctor took him into his study, locked
the door and sought to have a full and
confidential communication; but he
could get nothing out of him. Frau
Ilsy took him aside into the pantry, but
to as little purpose, and Peter de Groodt
held him by the button for full hour in
the churchyard, the very place to get at
the bottom of a ghost story, but came off
not a whit wiser than the rest. 1t is al
ways the case, however, that one truth
concealed makes dozen current lies.
1t is like guinea locked up in a bank,
that has dozen paper representatives.
Before the day was over, the neighbor-
hood was full of reports. Some said
that Dolph Heyliger watched in the
haunted house with pistols loaded with
silver bullets; others that he had long
talk with the specter without a head;
others, that DR.. Knipperhausen and the
sexton had been hunted down the Bow
cry lane and quite into town by legion
of ghosts of their customers. Some
shook their heads, and thought it a
shame that the doctor should put Dolph
to pass the night alone in that dismal
house, where he might be spirited
away, no one knew whittier; while
others observed, with shrug, that if the
devil did carry off the youngster, it
would be but taking his own.
These rumors at length reached the
ears of the good Dame Heyliger, and, as
may be supposed, threw her into terri
BILE alarm. For her son to have opposed
himself to danger from living foes would
have been nothing so dreadful in her
eyes as to dare alone the terrors of the
haunted house. She fastened to the doc
tors, and passed great part of the day
in attempting to dissuade Dolph from re-
,,ao<;pcr 1;o V:ri1. cba fold him n ccoro of