The times., 1894-05-18
A GHOST STORY.


was coming fast She had lots of new
clothes did 'em up. was Just doing
a skirt with 10 tucks in cluster and puff
ings each side, when all of sudden I
heard her give little scream.
1t was summer and 1 had my ironing
table under the grapevines. and she was
reading in the garden. A minute before
she was sitting with her book in her hand
quietlike. Now saw her jump up and run
toward me. ~
"Oh, how you frightened me!' she said.
"Charles. you ought to be ashamed of
yourself"
"Mr. Collins amt come, has he, missf"
asked sI didn't sec him.
''Now you are teasing me, too" she said.
"How sillyt Charles, come here You saw
him. He stood just here by you, Charles. /"
''Miss Rose, Mr.. Collins has not been
here. / couldn't have helped seeing him
II he had. {" s
"You must be blind" M
Her face was pale, and her lips tyeinbled.
She ran away looking for him, calling for
him, peeping behind bushes, into the arbor
everywhere. Then she came back and
sat down. II won't speak to him when he
comes out of his corner" she said. r'He
has frightened me-" s- 81,
But Mr.. Collins did not come out of any
corner that day. ''h
That evening she watched for him in
vain, and ut 12 o'clock that night she came
to me. She put her hands ON my shoul-
ders and said in avoice that can remem-
Der yet: W
"Nurse, wake up! can't be alone! I
am going madl Heis dead, nursel Charles
is dead!'
I jumped up in hurry and took her
poor cold little hands in mino and set her
down upon the bed.
Don't be silly" I said IA gentle
man may stay away from his sweetheart
ono evening and not be dead"
Says she, looking at me without a tear:
1T was not Charles that l saw today.
1t was his spirit He came to me again
just now. He stood by the long window
in the hall. His face was as white as snow.
He pointed to his breast. saw blood up
on it. He is dead" ~
Then, without scream or even sigh,
she just tainted away where she lay. !
knew that something had happened my
self I'd heard Of warnings before. 8
Well mum, she was right. The news
came the next day. Poor Mr.. Collins had
gone to the ely to collect some money. He.
rode there. His horse came home without
him.. They searched for him, of course
but they never found him.
He had been killed for his money, every
body thought, and SO it was, no doubt
And the road ran along the river good
way, and probably, they said, they had
thrown the body into it. Poor Miss Rose
never had any hope. We tried to cheer
her up, but it was no use. She had a long
e,sn xx,ha hn 70
her mind was gone.
Miss Roses grandfather quite broke
down under it, He took to his bed and
grew childish. L had my hands full, can
tell you, but wouldn't have left her
no, wouldn't for any money And time
went on, and it was year since Mr.
Charles was lost, and the flowers wero in
the garden again, when she began to pine
and fade and waste, SO that there seemed
no strength in her. She stopped dressing
herself up in queer things; she stopped
talking to herself. And one night, in the
dead middle of the night, just a year from
that on which she walked mo up, with her
hands on my shoulders to say that .Mr.
Charles was dead, she called out to me,
"Nurse, where are your" in her own voice.
ran to her side. N~ 4tf
''Here I am, honey" said
Haven't 1 been i'll, nurse!" she asked,
just as she used.
"a little delirious, >. .saidI
''Yes," she said, II know. I'm well
again. 1 have my senses again. want
to get up and dress and go into the gar
den."
was afraid to say no. dressed her
and myself, and we went down stairs.
The moon was bright. She walked down
to the gate and out into the road She did
not seem crazy to me. All the strange mo-
tions and ways were gone, but called her
to como back She stopped and smiled.
''Come with me, nurse" +" she said. II
must GO Charles Is beckoning me. You
see him, didn't you? i must go. know
Charles Is dead, but HIS spirit is there.
How strange you do not see himP' ~
Then she hurried OH, and followed. 1t
was too late to go back i had to keep an
eye on her. y M
She went on down by tho road until she
came to kind OF cliff there was there,
and thought should die, for there she
called out, 'Yes, Charles, yes, and began
to climb over 1t. ett "a
/ couldn't. follow there, and all could
do was to scream. Somebody heard me
aman that lived close by. He came out,
and told him what was the matter, and
he called his hired men and brought a. Ian
tern, and they went. sat on the bank,
crying. 1t was q long time before they
came back Then il was round by another
way, and they brought her in their arms
stone dead. And this is what they told
me about 1t: H .Nfs1
When they got to the bottom, they could
not SEQ her and thought she was drown
ed. But after awhile they heard little
sobbing sound, and there, in q little sort
of cave under the cliff, she sat. She was
sitting beside something too awful to talk
about but it had been q man once.
And that she was sitting beside was
what was left of poor Charles Collins.
They knew him by papers that were In his
pockets still and by mark on his hand
kcrchicf. And they buried the two in the
samo grave, after all, poor dears. And I
came here TO live. It's true story. Ev-
erybody knows it hereabouts and yet they
will ask me II believe in ghosts. What a
questionl-Ncw York News.
Our Morse Citizens.
No country contributes SO many immi-
grants to the United States In proportion |
to population as Norway. 1t is chiefly tho |