Herald and news. [volume] (West Randolph, Vt.) 1878-1943, 1890-07-17
THE NORTH PARLOR.
BY MARY b. sLEreHr.

IL chanced one evening", IN a certain
pleasant little drawing room, where a
party of friends had gathered, that the
conversation turned OIL ghosts.
Most of the company denied having
any faith in ghostly apparitions, and the
few who were disposed to believe in
them hcsitated to put their views into
plain English.
"Aunt Gwen believes in EN-" said
Dick, the irrepressible small boy of the
family. "Don't you, Aunt Gweng"
~ believe in the one Dick has in
mind" said the lady thus appealed to.
Curiosity was at once aroused, and
everyone turned eagerly toward Aunt
Gwen"
ooh, come and tell the story, aunty,n
pleaded Dick.
"Im afraid the Others may not be so
much interested in it as Dick is she
said. at happened when | was quite
young. | had been invited to spend a
week at my cousins, in one of the oldest
and quaintest of the old Long Island
villages. 1t was midsummer time Of
year when, at my cousins, company was
always in order, and | had been in the
house scarcely five minutes when a party
of guests walked in. Two of them, az
least, were unexpected, and Cousin
Avice, who had Just shown me TO my
room, received the news of their arrival
with a gesture of comic despair.
81 don't know what in the world to
do with them, she said. We can put
two in the room next to yours, but there
are -four of them, and the only other IN
occupied room in the house is the one
opening from the north parlor, and in
that the bed is too narrow to accommo-
date more than one.
"'Why not put me therel' l suggest
ed.
"'oh, don't like to- said Avice; its
a lonely sort of a place, away off from
everybody, and | ain afraid you'd be
timid.i
~ laughed at these objections. was
accustomed to sleeping in a room away
off from everybody at home, and had
never thought of being afraid, and
gathering up my belongings, / told Avice
to lead the way. She complied reluct-
antly, protesting that it was too bad to
put me in such a dismal den; she even
offered to make up a bed for herself on
the sofa rather than leave me to sleep
there alone. But | was not enough of a
coward to be willing to let her sacrifice
her nights rest in that way, and besides
/ was delighted with the room. 1t was
about twenty-five feet long and perhaps
fifteen in width, and though the ceiling
wa comparatively low, the wall paper,
representing narrow panels that reached
from cornice to wainscot, added greatly
to the apparent height. On the side of
the room opposite the bed there was
nothing to relieve the panelled surface
except, at intervals, a family portrait;
but at each end of the room there was a
broad double window, heavily barred on
the outside, | noticed, and so deep-seated
that / wondered what the thickness of
the walls must be. Avice explained TO
me afterward that her grandfather
L'Hommedieu. who was for many years
an invalid, had the room built for his own
use, taking every precaution to shut out
all disturbing sounds, and that since his
death it had seldom been occupied; but
even if she had told me this at first it
would not have intimidated me in the
least, for when a child l had often seen
her grandfather L'Hommedieu, and he
held a place in my remembrance as one
Of the kindest and most genial of old
gentlemen, not in any way one of the
sort who would be likely to haunt his
former habitation.
1.-THE only reason, evidently, for the
rooms having fallen into disuse was the
fact of its being so remote from the rest
of the house.
SIT serves chiefly nowadays Avice
said, with a laugh, AS an asylum for Sin
curablesr in the furniture line
"The craze for attic treasures had
not yet begun, but l had always a liking
for anything ancient, and as soon as
Avice left me to myself, / started on a
pilgrimage of investigation.
I'm one corner was a broken harpsi-
chord: a few feet from 1t stood a spin
ning-wheel. with the thread still on the
spindle; and just beyond, on a high easel.
was a full-length portrait of the deceased
grandfather, with his sword hanging be
side it: then came two or three quaint
old tables in a more or less rickcty con-
dition: an immense hair-cloth sofa. with
a hard round pillow at either end: a
large old-fashioned bookcase. crammed
with worn and musty volumes; a clock
dumb with age, reaching almost to the
ceiling, and roomy enough to have served