Elmore bulletin. [volume] (Rocky Bar, Idaho) 1889-1906, 1892-05-07

again last year | saw nothing between
those times and no one besides saw any.
thing, except, of course, Mrs. Clyde. Now
You have seen IL; but you did not see Il last
year. II Is very strange"
But who and what il the childsn nv
wife asked.
Nobody seems quite 10 know IL Is a
peculiar possession of Silveriadies, like the
birch wood at the back, and it has been for
generations. But what story there is 10
tell about it Mr.. Clyde likes 20 tell him.
self, said she with a smile; che will not
tell II TO everybody. though dare say he
will to YOU; you've seen itr'
My wife came to me a little while after
that interview with Mrs Nansittart. con.
siderably afflicted. She told me what had
passed and then broke into flood OF tears,
She had been turning all that was said
over In her mind, and she bad come TO a
sinister conclusion.
II believe" she declared, ''that Mrs.
Vansittart meant to imply by what she
told me about poor Mrs. Clyde that the ap-
partition OF this phantom child meant
death TO her children. And what il my
seeing il should mean death 10 my darling
baby Oh, Will 1t 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-beforc CLYDE
Before dinner she inveigled CLYDE into
his study and got from him the following
story; I'm the buccaneering DAYS of tbs
Inst century, said Clyde, IAN ancestor OF
mine the then second son OF he house, was
I'm hss Ia ta
bold, bad man, though his portrait, which
I'll show you, presents only rosy, jolly
sailor, who might. however, at times have
an awful temper. His elder brother died
childless, and he inherited and brought
home presently foreign wife from Heaven
knows where They had a daughter, it is
said--a fair haired creature whom the for
eign woman hated with the hatred of the
Pit. The child, too, had favorite cat,
and the foreign woman could not abide
cats
What followed the story IL 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, 1t 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
terror of which, 1t is said, she speedily
died. But the strange thing is that in
memory OF these things il Is not the ghost
OF the mother that visits the house but the
ghost of the child; and the only explana
tion ! can offer is that the child las Is saidl
was passionately fond of her mother. Tha
spirit of the child and of her kitten appear
at singular and ominous intervals
THE apparition is said to proguosticata
an infants death, and must confess Ii has
been strangely coincident with the two
griefs OF my life My dear wife first saw II
i, as | told you, have never seen it.
just before the death of our little girl. She
saw IL, as you did, climbing the stairs, and
at first she thought it was her own child,
except that she did not understand tho
presence Of the kitten II entered 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 1t, 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
little while, with 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 fed 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
Al Na 4
matter and tried 10 reason away my wife's
fears, but without effect Then bethought
me of the other tradition. and reminded
her of it--that whoever having seen the
apparition should discover and explain
the mystery, would lay tie 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 IL did
not come.
Then another night she remained down
stairs till her usual time for retiring, and
then when she withdrew she saw as before
the child climb the stairs before her and
disappear into her room. She entered after
tt, and saw it, as 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 50. She sat down long
way of and waited for what would hap.
pen. After a while there came-something
happened too frightening and horrible for
me 10 tell you'll should be afraid, Mrs
Brooks, for the effect upon you II told you;
but she could see and could think OF no ex-
PLANTATION, nor could when she told me of
It. Next night she tried again She fol.
lowed the little apparition up stairs, en-
tered the room after il and with nerves at
cruel tension waited for the event Ii hap.
pened as the night before, but still she
could see and could think OF no explana-
tion. And then--then the next, the third
night our child died. died Of cronpl
THAT was great trouble But my
wife would not leave that room. She was
a woman of high spirit, and she was de
termined TO get Mt the root of the mystery,
and to lay the poor little death dealing
ghost She did not. however, see the
creature again for about year-not until
she lay expecting to lie mother again
tried TO prevail ON her to quit that room;
pleaded with her to leave 1t for my sake,
for this ehild's sakel But, no; she would
remain there. She did remain, and at the
critical time she declared that the up-
partition came into the room. and sat down
by the fire. showing its face-she died
with cry of agony on her lips
Clyde. | suppose, had not. in his preoc-
cnpation with his own gricfs. perceived
how all that story OF his pierced my wife's
heart; how she was in that same condition
of terror for her child as his wife had been
in. She left Kim and came 90 me with her
woe. She also. like clyde's wife, was
woman OF resoiufe spirit, especially where
her child was concerned. and size told me
she was determined TO explain the inyster.s,