The Colfax chronicle. [volume] (Colfax, Grant Parish, La.) 1877-1981, 1892-07-16

ANU may we SicCP up III IhC SafiCe
under the eaves?"
''You had better go home, Miss Clara
this hut is no place for the likes of
you dainty young ladies to lay Your
heads"
Tnhospitable old thing,'' pouted
Clara. "As If we could go home in such
tempest as this! Why, it will rain all
night"
''They will send the carriage for you"
How can they, when they haven't an
idea where we are? We started to walk
to .Buckleyville, and then 1 remem-
bered what delicious wild grapes used
to grow up the mountain side; and we
wandered off, scarcely knowing where,
until we heard the thunder peal and
found ourselves close to your cottage.
It's a regular adventure, Huldah, and
you may as well give in to 1t first as
last"
Marian Dale sat silent the while, and
when Huldah had limped into the bed
room to get fresh fuel wherewith to re-
plenish the failing fire she whispered
to her companion:
dOu llhC tuC lOOhS Vi tniS pidCct
Clara. wish we had never come to g."
"What nonsensew said Clara, eayly.
81 think it Is all splendid! Old Huldah
is perfect character, and night upon
the mountain side will be an adventure
to talk of for weeks"
The supper Of rye bread and milk was
delicious to the two hungry girls, and
xx-1aV net o.I H,,lI 10
the way up a steep flight of steps more
like a ladder than stairs, which led into
the garnet, Clara's delight was greater
than ever.
What love of an old place." she
exclaimed, looking round her at the
bare beams and rafters, which, at their
apex, almost touched her head. '.IIow
unsteady the rain sounds, and how
cozy that little bed under the beams
looks, only we shall have to go on our
hands and knees to get into it. Oh!
Marian, what do you suppose we shall
dream about?"
'Hush!' cried Marian. seizing her
companions arm. what noise was
that?"
"Only an owl hooting in the woods.
What bundle of ridiculous nerves you
are, Marian"
"Ah! but the strange grating sounds
as if skeleton fingers were feeling over
the roof"
Clara burst into laugh.
Nothing on earth but the trees that
hang over the ledge of rocks, and brush
to and fro across the ridge pole at every
gust of wind. What will you fancy
next?'
Marian drew a deep sigh of relief.
"But 1 shall not undress," she said,
quietly.
"Why not?'
81 think it safer to lie down just as I
am"
marian, you are a gooser' exclaimed
Clara. However, l don't care; we'll
just draw the patchwork coverlid over
us and sleep as soundly as if we were
in the state chamber at Windsor castle,
for think l never was so sleepy in all
my life"
II shall not sleep a wink all night"
said Marian. "Oh! Clara, wish we
Ido hVPt Oh oO"h OhC LlOuutdlDS. Il
wish we had not come here"
Marian, what ais you?' cried Clara,
almost impatiently. 81 wouldn't be
such an old maid as you for thousand
dollars. Do lie quietly down and let
me go to sleep"
Marian Dale said no more, but at
midnight she noiselessly walked her
companion. .
"Clara. Clara! Hush! Do not speak,"
she whispered; shut face was looking
into the window just now"
Into this window, Marian? No one
but a bird could reach it. You are
dreaming"
II am not dreaming. Neither have 1
been asleep. But tell you face did
look in just now. A face CHASTITY In the
moonlight, with shaggy hair and
beard"
Clara raised herself on her elbow, and
perceived that the violence of the storm
was over and that the moon was shin
ing so as to cast a square of. white radi-
ance on the rough board floor.
Suddenly the food of light was dark
ened. Marian forced her companion
back into roc!ining posture, and whis-
pered:
FLUSH! pretend to be asleep-it is our
only safety"
And at the same instant a curious
.dwarfed figure climbed into the room,
its face looking singularly yellow and
corpse-like in the magic light, framed,
as it was, with mat of coarse red hair.
A ragged coat hung loosely on its mis-
shapen shoulders, and its feet were
cased in something that looked like
moccasins of fur. And as Clara Law
there, she could feel the blood pulsiug
in wild leaps to her heart. She could
not speak-she had no voice to scream.
1t seemed to her for the moment that
she must surely go mad with terror.
The creature, whether apparition or
reality, crept stealthily across the