Daily tobacco leaf-chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1890-1895, 1890-07-16

My wife came to me little while after
| that interview with Mrs. Vansittart, con-
siderably afflicted. She told me what had
| passed and then broke into a flood Of tears.
! She had been turning All that was said
over in her mind, and she had come TO d
sinister conclusion.
81 believe" she declared, that Mrs.
| Vansittart meant TO imply by what she
told me about poor Mrs. Clyde that the APP
partition of this phantom child meant
death to her children. And what if my
seeing it shouldmean death to my darling
baby Oh, Will it makes me sick with
dreadr'
tried to comfort her after the manner
of husbands, and to dispel her fear But
she shook her head and would not heed
me. ! then advised her to lay the whole
matter-her dread included-bcfore Clyde
Before dinner she inveigled Clyde into
| his study and got from him the following
/ story: ''In the buccaneering days of the
| last century," said Clyde, IAN ancestor of
mine, the then second son of the house, was
in the navy. He is said to have been a
bold, bad man. though his portrait, which
| I'll show you, presents only rosy, jolly
sailor, who might. however, at times have
IN awful temper. His elder brother died
childless, and he inherited and brought
| home presentlya foreign wife from Heaven
knows where They had daughter, it is
said--a fair haired creature whom the for,
eign woman hated with the hatred of the
Pit The child, too, had favorte cat,
and the foreign woman could not abide
cats.
"What followed the story is not quite
clear about. The child, however, died
either through constant i'll treatment or by
some immediate violence, and my ancestor
took some terrible vengeance on his wife,
so terrible that, it is said, she was ever
after his trembling slave. You shall see
her portrait, too, and note how the face
seems impressed with a continual terror
a terror of which, it is said, she speedily
| died. But the strange thing is that in
memory of these things it is not the ghost
Of the mother that visits the house but the
ghost of the child; and the only explana.
ton can offer is that the child las is sad)
| was passionately fond of her mother The
spirit of the child and of her kitten appear
at singular and ominous intervals.
"The apparition is said to prognosticate
an infants death, and must confess it has
been strangely coincident with the two
gricfs of my life My dear wife first saw it
/, as | told you, have never seen it
| Just before the death of our little girl She
saw it, US you did, climbing the stairs, and
at first she thought it was her own child,
except that she did not understand the
| presence of the kitten. Itcntered the room
| you know Of on the right, which was then
her room, and she followed, overtaking it.
| She was surprised to find the door closed
when she came to it, and still more sur
! prised to see her own child asleep in her
cot and the strange child with the kitten
sat looking at the fire. She stood fixed for
n little while, with "a sense upon her of the
evil unknown.
| "Then she remembered the tradition she
had heard that the apparition of the child
with the black kitten foreboded death, and
she turned and fled from the room. She
came to find me- We returned to the room
! together but the apparition was gone.
She was terribly overcome with the dread
of what was to ensue. She was sure our
child was going to die, and she insisted on
sending at once for the doctor TO discover
whether there was not in her some lurking
aiment. He came and found nothing the
| matter and tried to reason away my wife s
fears, but without effect. Then lbethought
me of the other tradition, and reminded
her of it-that whoever having seen the
apparition should discover and explain
the mystery, would lay the ghost and save
the Threatened child She caught at that
with feryent hope. She prepared to see the
childish ghost again. She waited night
or two in her room to receive it, but it did
not come.
m y oh "a al
stairs till her usual time for retiring, and
then when she withdrew she saw MS before
the child climb the stairs before her and
disappear into her room. She entered after
It, and saw it, rs before sit with the kitten
before the fire. She could not see the face
of either, though she had an unconquer-
able longing to do so. She sat down n long
way Off and waited for what would hap
pen. After while there came-something
happened too frightening and horrible foI
me to tell you-I should be afraid, Mrs,
Brooks, for the effect upon you if told you
but she could see and could think of no OK
PLANTATION, nor could when she told me OF
it, Next night she tried again. She fol
lowed the little apparitiou up stairs, en-
tered the room after it and with nerves al
cruel tension waited for the event. 1t hap
|
could see and could think of no cxplana.
ton. And then-thcn the next, the third
night our child died, died of Group!
THAT was II great trouble, But my
wife would not leave that room. She was
u woman of high spirit, and she was de
tcrmined to get ut { he root of the mystery,
and To lay the poor little death dealing
ghost She did not, however see the
NOT a
she lay expecting to be II mother again.
tried TO prevail ON her to quit that room;
pleaded with her to leave it for my sake
for the childs sakol But, no; she would
remain there She did remain and at the
critical time she declared that the ap.
partition came into the room, ana sat down
by the fire, showing its face4-she died
with II cry of agony on her lips"
Clyde, | suppose, had not, in his preoc
cupation with his own griefs, perceived
how all that story of his pierced my Wife's
heart; how she was in that same condition
of terror for her child Hs his wife had been
in. She left him and came to me with her
woe She also, like Cyde's wife, was a
woman of resolute spirit, especially where
her child was concerned; and she told me
she was determined to explain the mystery
to lay the ghost, and so to save her threat
encd child said, Every WE'LL" if she waa
resolved would not balk her
Immediately after dinner went TO the
housckeeper with whom, may freely say,
was something of II favorite) and eX'
planned to her the taking my wife was in.
ITS our child she is 50 alarmed about, u
said l.
And well she may be- poor thingr said
the housekeeper, considering all that
has come of seeing the poor little image on
the stairs even in my time. There was