The Bennington banner. [volume] (Bennington, Vt.) 1858-1894, 1891-06-19
TIE LINEN CLOSET.

THE LINEN CLOSET.
'But surely there are more roomsP"
The young window who had come
down to Garland to hire little house
for the summer had followed the agent
| into the two-story cottage and was star
ing about her.
"Only four rooms?" she said. "Surely
there were ten-I mean that the house
looks larger on the outside"
ooh, there were ten originally, ma'am, !"
the agent replied. There were ten, but
the rest are boarded up. This is simply
the wing, but you have a parlor din
ing-rOom and two bedrooms, besides the
little outside kitchen, which is a build
ing by itself, and the rent is actually
nominal
"But the folly of boarding up six good
rooms" said the lady. "The parlor
with the wainscot and black marble
mantelpiece.
"You know the houseP" cried the
agent.
"Oh, in the houses of this sort you
always find black marble mantel and a
wainscot," said the lady. And on the
other side of the hall the sitting room
and spare bedrooms. upstairs, and the
linen closet and bathroOm-the long,
dark linen closet"
"The ghost always comes out of that,
said the agent.
ooh, hol" cried the lady. "The cat
is out of the bag. The house is haunt
ed?"
Eyes, ma am" replied the agent. at
has that reputation among ignorant peo-
pie. But since the main building has
been boarded in, the figure has never
been seen by any one"
1.-THE figure?n asked the lady. "All
in white like an ironing beard?"
"All in white, but like pretty girl of
SIXTEEN" replied the agent 81 remem-
Der the murder myself. My father was
in the real estate business where | am
now. l was school boy. | remember
how the news ran through the village
that Martha Penny had been killed by
wild Jack Parker, and how | rushed up
with the crowd to see her. Yes, ma am,
saw her lying weltering in her blood
across the threshold of the old linen
closet"
The lady shuddered and sat down in
the large, chintz covered armchair of the
room they had entered.
"You can go and play in the garden"
she said to the little boy whom she led
by the hand. Don't go out of sight.
Now tell me the story, Mr. Brick"
Every sensible to send the child away"
the agent said "Well, the facts were
these: Martha Penny lived as seam
stress with Mrs. Parker. They made
her one ST the family. Jack fell in love
with her. The story goes that she re-
fused him, and that he said she should
never marry any man. Then she said
that she would go away, and was getting
ready to 60 when she SAW him with eyes
ablaze coming down the passage and ran
into the linen cl set. A black servant
watched it all. As he passed the door
he shot her. They arrested him and
took him off to prison. But while the
body was waiting for the coroner it dis
appeared. no one ever knew how. Mrs.
Parker had taken to her bed. Black
Ann had been afraid to sit with the
murdered girl. In the night Martha
Pcnny's corpse vanished.
"The jury made up their minds that
Jack was crazy, and he was locked up
for awhile, though he sworc that the
pistol went off by accident When he
was let out again his mother was dead.
He is quite a rich man, but he never
could bare to live on his property. He
has room at the hotel and has let all his
land. A first he let the house also, hut
the tenants were all scared away by the
ghost, they said, so five years ago he
boarded up the main building ana only
let's the wing. Every summer people
hire it. 1t is prettily furnished, you see,
with new things. The old stuff is all in
the old rooms. They do say that they
hear noises in the big building, but pur-
haps rats make them. And Mrs Smith
you don't look like lady who would be
afraid Of
martha Penny's ghost?" interrupted
tie lady. ''Indeed am not. Poor lit
tie Martha would do no one any harm.
l should be much more afraid of wild
Jack Parker, though he is alive"
Hes an altered man, ma'am," said
the agent; "quite broken, though lie is
rather young in years"
"I'll take the house, sir" said the
widow, rising and bcckoning through
the window to her little boy. "And my
servant and and little Tom will move
in on Tuesday"
They did so and soon flowers bloomed
in the garden and at the window, and
the pretty child swung under the elm
trees or tossed his ball on the lawn. The
lllubhOl3 lNOlhihb III nv
hammock, read or crotcheted, or walked
with her boy when the weather grew
cool The maid was pretty and alert.
No home in the country seemed less
likely to attract ghosts itself, and Mrs.
Smith when questioned, always said that
she had never caught a glimpse of
Martha Penny's spectre.
But though Mrs. Smith told the truth,
she did not tell the whole truth. Some
times at night-yes, at midnight-when
little Tom and the maid were sleeping
soundly, the lady, wrapped in a double
gown and with woolen slippers on her
feet, would glide out into the hall, and
there, with her ear to the light partition
that divided the wing from the main
building, would listen to feet that went
to and fro, to walls and means, to what
seemed to her prayers and to many repe-
titiOns of the name martha Penny
Martha Penny, but oftenest Martha"
alone. She never spoke of this to any
one, and it was plain that she felt no
terror, but sometimes she wept bitterly,
as if she was very sorry for the poor,
wandering ghost.
This went on for months, until one