The Carbon advocate. [volume] (Lehighton, Pa.) 1872-1924, 1890-03-01


house. Susie, TO keep her mind easy. and [
a warin place in your chimney corner.
She'll have gloomy time of C, poor
soul stumbling round among tomb
stones tn she's at rest under one her-
self"
SO the farmhouse became Nancy Ty-
ler's home, and she lived her quiet,
melancholy life, docile and harmless,
never Wild in her arrangement; only, us
ho country people called IL, queer"
The stone remained in her chamber fur
Il was fancy Of her bewildered brain
that it was still in her charge, and day
and aight she was painfully responsible
for its safe keeping
And spring aud summer and winter
came and went again, and they were
very busy at the farm.
Nancy came to Mrs. Dale ono evening
with a frightened face
"If you please, marm, can't skim the
milk tonight" she said.
"Why not, NancyT'
"There's a man keeps looking at me
| through the window, marin
Susie took the candle from her trem-
bling hand and went into the pantry.
She pressed her face close to the glass
then raised the window and peered out
into the darkness, but coull SEQ nothing
She smiled at Nancys foolish fears. lin
shed tho relinquished task, and returned
to the kitchen.
81 don't see anything of your man,
| Nancy" she said. "What did he look
likeg
"He looked like robber, marm."
Law, Nancyl we don't have robbers
at the farm. Such thing was never
heard of. It was your fancy. And now
you may go to bed. You are tired,
know, with your days work"
Nancy hesitated Could the things
be moved back into my room, marmT
she asked.
"Why, no, Nancy; 1 don't see how
they can. You can get along for one
night, can't you've expect to get along
most anyhow in house cleaning time. "
81 don't mind anything about the rest,
Miss Dale but it is outside"
"Oh, the stonel Well, Nancy, it is too
heavy for you or me to lift, but when
samuel comes home I'll ask him to step
up and set it inside your door. viii
that do? Now go right to bed and to
sleep"
She lit her candle, and climbed the
;tairs to her room over the kitchen. The
space at the top was crowded with tables
md chests and other articles belonging
70 the upper regions Of the house, for
,Irs Dale was in the midst of thorough
;leaning. Leaning against a bureau
lose to the head of the stairs stood Nan
;y's precious charge. She stopped to
,ass her hand over its polished surface,
nurinuriug some half articulate words
her broken voice-then passed into
ler chamber.
Half an hour later, when Samuel Dale
returned from the postolfice, he had an
exciting story to tell. The depot at Les
.er's Corners was robbed the night
before, and the thief had been tracked
lalf way to Barclay Farm.
$50 look out for your silver spoons
susie" said her husband, 'for the light
fingered gentry are among US.
Then she told of Nancy's fright, an
N her eagerness to see that every doDi
vas fastened and the house made secur.
Tor the night, quite forgot her promis,
20 the poor woman up stairs.
Nancy lay waiting long time, and
when she slept at last it was a disturbed
md broken sleep, from which she was
suddenly wakened by the sound of q
stealthy step on the stairs. She fell
rather than heard itapproaching slowly
cautiously, well nigh noiselessly. Sh,
rose in her bed, holding her breath t.
listen. Was it Mr.. Dale coming to full
illihis wife's promise2 Was it--oh nor
ror! could it be-the man whose face
had frightened her at the window? Anc
if he came to rob the house, what did il
contain half so valuable as the precious
;harge to which she had that night fol
he first time proved faithless?
1t must have been some such train o.
thought that passed through Nancy
fyler's mind, and that caused the timid
weak headed woman, who under ordi
nary circumstances would hardly hav,
gentured to face a mouse, to rush to tho
rescue of her treasure She spran,
from her bed and crossed the room at
bound, and, throwing open her door
stood face to face with a man holding
lark lantern in his hand In surpris,
1t her sudden appearance he made
backward step, lost his footing anC
'aught at the nearest support. 1t wa
the tombstone 1t shook-it tottered-
it fell, and man and marble crashed
down the stairs together with a sound t,
wake the dead. A moments stiffness
succeeded the uproar, followed by tht
sound Of voices and footsteps, and (
group of frightened faces appeared il
the doorway.
The stairs were strewn with fragment
Of the broken stone, and at the bottom
lay the motionless body of a man. II,
grasped in one hand Farmer Barclay
well filled wallet, and Susie Dales wed
ding spoons pFotruded from his pocket
There was blood everywhere. Th,
stairs, the walls and pieces of marble
we're sprinkled with it, and where thu
mans head lay was pool that every in
stant increased in size. He was quit,
dead, and they saw by ghastly wounc
upon his head that a sharp corner of the
stone had cloven his scull.
When Samuel Dale turned the deaC
mans face to the light, he uttered an
exclamation of horror, for Thomas Ty
ler's black eyes stared blindly in hii
own, and his lips, parting, showed th,
white teeth grinning in a ghastly smile
They bore away the body, and left 4
woman on the bloodstained stair cropping
with feeble, moaning cries for the frag
ments of Thomas Tyler's tombstone.