The Bennington banner. [volume] (Bennington, Vt.) 1858-1894, 1889-08-15
A TRYING ExpERIENCE.


cousins, and all of them near relations
to myself. Some had just returned from
riding, others from driving or walking,
and all seemed bent upon half an hour
unconstrained, unconventional comfort.
Suddenly one of the young girls address
sed me in coaxing tone, thus
"Dear Aunty Madge, do tell us
story p
"a story !" exclaimed and pray,
what aboutH .....
"A ghost story" exclaimed chorus
of young voices,
"Oh, no never tell ghost stories, al
though know a good many, but"
"Well," persisted the first speaker
"tell us something something truly
dreadful and dreadfully true !"
would you like me TO tell you some
thing that really happened to myself
years agoS" :.
ooh, yes better than anything else. !"
VERY well. Poke the fire into blaze
$50, and now, If you are all ready Twill
begin; and remember that what am
going to tell you is really and literally
true,
.'Some years ago took to the strange
habit of rising early-but very, very
early l mean-and taking aolitary
country walk. This would not have
been such strange thing to do had the
hour been less unconventionally early,
and had l confined my pedestrian feats
to the summer time but this did not
lido. Winter and summer we're both
alike to me then, and at both seasons l
invariably rose at four O'Clock and was
out of the house before five and need
hardly remind you that at that hour, in
the winter, il is quite dark, unless, of
course, there should be a moon. The
habit did not originate in my case from
caprice. 1t arose from a wretched rest
lessness of mind and body, the effects of
great sorrow.
"My home at that time was in Scot
land. / lived in dear old home which
was poised, like bird, upon rock and
literally hung over the sea, the silver
spray dashing carelessly against Its win
dows. On one side of the house there
was.aIgood sizedIold fashioned garden, laid
out in terraces down to the sea, and not
a quarter of mile distant from the other
side was thick frwood. 1t was into
this wood that generally strayed of a
morning, and sitting upon one of the
felled trees-of which there was always
number lying prone upon the ground
i would watch the daylight gradually
appearing, and the sun rising grandly
out of the sea. After the sun had fairly
risenI always hastened homewarh. sc
as to avoid meeting any early risers who
might be about the place, and the rest
of the day | would shut myself up with
my books and music, prey to harrow
ing memories. | cannot defend my
| g., l., MW
grief was selfish, and, therefore, all the
harder TO bear, for God has taught mi
since that there is no such comfort il
sorrow as that of seeking to comfor
others.
There was no gentlemen's places nea
my home, consequently no neighbors, NJ
visitors ever molested me. But no
many miles distant there existed an olt
melancholy looking mansion called
N[ornington which had been uninhabitet
for years, but latterly, to the great an
noyance of the farmers and small gentrl
around, it had been lei tn DIR. Sterndale
who kept an establishment for incurabl
unstics.
Everything, however, seemed TO g
on quietly enough there the unhhpp
patients never, apparently, yenturin
beyond the park, which was shut in b
large iron gates. These were alway
locked, but now and then passcr+ b
cought glinpses through them of & un
strangely attired figures, and sometimes
though rarely, of pale, anxious -lookin
faces peering through the iron worl
There was dilapidated lodge at the ell
trance gates, surrounded by what veal
J ago had been a garden, but now it wa
choked up by overgrown shrubs an
evergreens, which seemed vainly stral
Cling and struggling, out of kindly del
- cacy, to hide their old friends brOka
xa windows and unhinged DOORS Certai'
ly this lodge had an uucanny appea
ance, and the repor: had once bee
spread "a ridiculously false one, of cOurs
\ that it was at times used as a dead lou
y for no living person was ever seen to Ell
ter the door, no smoke to exit from Il
1 chimney, and when DR.. Sterndlle dro'
A out in his numbering coach, which
did now and again, accompanied
y some of his most favored patients, he i
MI yariably opened the lodge gates himse
and carefully relocked them, thus n
quiring no aid from lodge keeper.
"The doctors vehicle just menri ne
y rather struck awe l found in the simp
X vIllager mind for my gardener relate
M that one day as il was coming towal
him, he saw it suddenly shut itself l
with loud snap. For all the wOr-r-riC
said the man timorously, ike a lar-rl
W mouth, ,gulping down the poor puir foil
n who were inside In vain | assure
M him that this phenomenon wa simpl
'l the result of some clever mechanism;
and the country people became supe
stitiously alarmed +; and this senJlmel
was by no means lessened when q
q gardener proceeded tD give further d
tails. He stated that at the mome
the carriage passed aim one of the blind
II which had been hastily drawn dow
HI was violently pushed aside by lari
n white hand covered with glitterir
= ringa that then face was thrust fo
ward, making horrid grimaces and g
I'LL ticulations; but that both head al
Hi hands hastily disappeared with a jer
lii as though the individual who claim
= them had been forciblyi dragged bac
II The blind was then replaced but
shook exceedingly, as if some strugg
III we're going on behind it; then the Ct
lin riage passed by, vanishing in cloud
dust.
: "That the luDatios were OF dang
TT2 GUS class had often herd 1t said,
such report would be sure, thoul
to get afioat, we're it true OF them or
~, verse: and as Mornington was l)Dg wt
III from our house lit was quite mile
other side of the fir-wood, which its
was nearly mile broad | did |
a trouble myself about such tales.
~ maid, however, who had lived YET
MI with me, constantly implored me to
~ less yentursome in my morning wall
but felt no fear-the greatest calam
that could befall me had come so Y
callous about anything else,
"Well ,one morning late in the autun
: having been more restless than usl
! during the previous night, got up e
lier even then was my wont, and ate
~ brisk walk, found myself 10 the Y,
~ heal Of the wood. knew exactly VIII
III was, for seat had been placed th
saco ia,.i to mark the center point, II was one
the (then) new fashioned double ses
ork. upon which people sit back to back, q
- lust az | reached it heard will
clock strike five, and for the first ii
- IN my life Il knew not Why when | r,
. lied my distance from home, and
earliness of the hour, a shudder ca
zee, over me, aud the fact that the place'
'0' very lonely, and shat 1 was only W,
women and utterly defenseless, for
itself unplrasantly upon me. de-
a mined, however, to pooh-pooh my fsi
u to pull myself together, and to persu
v myself that was not afraid.
M "'It is the weather, said, which
. unnerved me, and certainly it was
mp reassuring.
the the 1T was a fitful morning; there