The Olneyville tribune. (Providence, R.I.) 1893-189?, 1893-11-18


sounds outside died away. But sud.
denly, at some stroke OF ill-luck, this
blasphemer broke into "A torrent of
curses that made his fellows shrink
away from him with pale faces. In
the midst OF IL the cabin door was
burst violently open, and what they
described afterward As bowling blast.
with sounds OF men and horses, drove
through the place. The table and
light were overturned. The gamblers
were down on their faces When all
was silent agaiu, and some one sum.
moned up courage 30 light a match,
the man VINO had sworn was dead,
suddenly dead, as If killed by light
ming, but wit no cause To show.
told this story TO my companion as
We went along-also another tradi-
tion OF the place; that II was once "A
pleasant little home among the apple
trees, long ago, before the famine OF
AS had given Irish vitality stroke
from which il still suffers. A widow
and her two roSy-cheeked growing
girls lived there. Then there came
the time when there was little or no.
food. Enough potatoes, perhaps, TO
tide one person over the hard winter,
eked out by the few hens and other
humble live stock. So the girls, Nora
and Katy, made up their minds TO go
10 America and make home for the
mother there. She would follow
them in the spring. The neighbors
would be good 60 her, ana she would
keep her heart alive in the hope OF re-
union. They went with prayers and
kisses ana tears. Perhaps she couldn't
have borne TO let them go, only the
skin was already loose on the faces
that had been so plump, and the
girls lips were growing blue with the
famine. She could not keep them TO
become gaunJ skeletons like some
that she had shuddered at. She let
them go, drugging herself with
dreams of speedy reunion. Alas,
their ship went down I'm midoccan
and every soul pcrishcd. News came
10 land by means OF IA few iloating
planks, and was spclt out In the vii
lagc forge by the reader, who was
giving less lucky folk the benefit OF his
learning by translating for them the
contents OF the papers Some busy
body carried the news to the widow
The sudden telling snapped her
sanity. When kind people stole To
be with her I'm her trouble she was
gone; the house door open, but Of her
neither tale nor tidngs For more
than forty years no tidings OF her had
come, and any who ever thought OF
her-but those OF her own generation
were very old-concludcd she was
was long ago with her little girls in
that distant country that Is Heaven.
The stories but excited the inter
est OF my adventurous friend. She
would peep I'm at the broken windows
OF the haunted house. At first she
begged for my company, but had
never been near the place, and should
never dare TO brave its memories. /
waited for her on the road while she
lightly ran over the grass-grown
path. The mist was forming white
walls all about. In the distance
where the wan sky turned pale as
silver the reflect on below was like a
silver mirror. A tree In the hedge
row tinkled It's leaves like the tink-
ling OF barley The water was sulk-
ing somewhere out OF sight. sud
denly my friend was at my side with
the rapidity OF "A startled deer "Oh,
come away" she said, there's some
one, something, In that awful house"
i didn't need her dragging me by
the hand TO run nOiselessly-as II we
feared some unknown terror hearing
our feet I'm the mist-betwcen the
winding hedgcrows pale with the
gold OF withered leaves, till we were
In the world again, the world OF in
habited lodges and roadmenders
scattering their shingles, and a soil
tary plowman whose assistance we
knew we could trust 10 driving his
patient team up and down the lonely
upland Then we lcant in view OF
him over wall that had once walled
in a quarry and found our voices.
Pecring in at the window she had
gaZed second or two at the place
full OF shadows, Till she had made
out one that looked like "a human
shape covering by what was once the
IlpdTbilbJODC. DfIc uIu llOb look JWItp,
but fled back TO me with her heart in
her mouth.
We were in mood TO believe IL
anything ghost or banshee, Jr even
that most horrible OF Irish spooks,
the Watcher by the Ford. However,
day or two later heard that old
Moll Donovan had come back. Where
she had been In the interval God
knows-iD the pauper lunatic asylum
Of some county most probably for
her gown OF blue check looked like
uniform. She was quite harmless,
poor thing as the old ncigbbors
found out presently. Her mind had
stopped short at the hour before she
heard the girls were drowned. Find
ing her so harmless the country peO-
pie were well disposed 10 take her as
in trust from God. They tidied up
the place for her as well az long de-
cay would permit them, and put in "a
few sticks OF furniture. She accepted