Eagle River review. [volume] (Eagle River, Wis.) 1890-1927, 1892-01-21
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CHAPTER III.

nantes of light, fleeting cloud, foated
low down behind the tall cOttonwoods
on the right, ever and anon casting a
few slight beams across the black deck
of a small steamboat that was headed
up one of those numerous murky bayous
which flooded the southern portion OF
the State of Louisiana.
The boat, which was a sort of cotton
lugger," contained but two passengers
my companion and myself-who were
looked upon by the officers and deck
hands of the craft as mysterious person
ages. We had come on board after dark,
and were well bundled up in great coats,
so undoubtedly looked quite austere and
grim in the dim lights of the smoky Ian
terms hung about Besides, we were go
ing to the haunted villa on the old Span
ish plantation up the country, which, as
rumor had it, had for years been inhab-
| tied by none but ghostly apparitlonS,
and which was supposed to be resting
under the ban of a terrible and ineXor-
able curse.
Our journey by boat was some twenty
miles, and on our way upwe had stood on
the top deck, leaning against the pilot
house. absorbed in thought and speak
ing but seldom.
Once the captain came along and
touched my arm and that of my COM
panion, and by the aid of his lantern
looked earnestly into our faces. Upon
being asked why he did this, he replied:
BEG your pardon, misters, but some
o. the men doubt as how ye are flesh an
blood, We look so glum and ghostly like.
They hearn whar ye're goin', an are
| jest a little skeery. No live man has
dared to tackle that ar habitation at
midnight afore fur up ards o ten year.
| Don't mean to offend ye, misters, but eff
twas me I'd wait till sun-up afore | TUX
| partikeer pains t. git acquainted wi
! the folks at the haunted house.
| This said, he walked on.
Flesh and blood! Did I know then
| whether it was flesh and blood | had for
a companion that night, or the shade OF
one long dead?
Was I flesh and blood that night, or
that month, or was | the ghost Of my
self accompanying a weird fancy along
the bayous and over the fields of South
ern Louisiana?
letters or the ways of the world, l saw
and held mystic communion with the
spirits of the dead Was [ again, at the
beginning of manhood, as at the begin
ming of life, to commune with zephyry
! companions?
And Burton Aro,d Why mad I taken
him as boon companion--a man who
was as the dead come to life, so un-
natural were his ways and so super
natural were his thoughts and words?
1t came about in this way: had been
in the swamps of Florida Oh hunt for
curious insects for a Northern en-
tomologist; and had contracted the
"break- bone fever" terrible COM
bination of typhoid fever and in
tlammatory rheu Latism disease
that is very common in the sWampy
regions of the South. During the de-
lirium which followed I was taken to
Mobile and taken care Of in hospital.
/ was Gelirious for some weeks, and
when [ "came to" was surprised at my
surroundings [ inquired of the first
person saw as to where was and why
/ was there This person was Burton
Arold, and he told me how it all came
about. How he came to find out l do
not know, for none of the hospital peo-
found at my bedside, and none had
troubled themselves to learn his name
or to give him any information concern
ing me. He seemed to take great in
terest in me, and attended me during
my whole illness with the constancy and
tenderness of a firm and devoted friend.
His so icitOus care had the effect upon
my recovering faculties of winning my
unconditional gratitude, for l found out
that the hospital attendants were like d
set Of machinery, moving here and there
in nice order. managed by master heads,
but having little more sympathy for a !
sick person than one would commonly
have for d plaster manikin, SO accus
toned were they to scenes of sickbed
and deathbed sufferings.
His conversation also charmed me, so
ineffably eccentric, buoyant, and beauti-
full it was. When we were alone in the
dark, weary watches of the night, hour
after hour, never seeming sleepy, never
tired, did he hold me in frances of de- |
light by the ecstasy of his discourse;
and the wild flights of fancy, the weird
imaginings with which he would occa-
sionally burst forth when in converse
ton with me, wrought an agreeable ac-
compartment to the drowsy fervor and !
dreamy ideality that settled down
upon me after the delirium Of the fever.
1 was naturally disposed to be alb |
struse and speculative, and the day |
dreams, the ever changing phantasma-
gora of imaginative objects that tloated !
through my m nd continually during my
convalescence, without system or order, !
were from day to day made brighter, the
more delightful, the more pleasantly in
fatuating by his fervid, passionate but
almost divine genius of eioquence and
poetical fancy. l began to love him as !
a brother and to feel considerable adj /
miration for him, and he seemed to re-
ciprocate the attachment.
When / became we'll again, he pro-
posed that should accompany him into
Louisiana on visit to the house that
had been the home of his sweetheart,
who had died some years before. 1t was
a haunted house, he said, but from what
he had heard me say when / was i'll he
guessed that l was not afraid of having
friendly visit with spirits that were
l,indlr disnoSnd asked no nnnSfinnS