The Red Cloud chief., 1894-05-04
TRUE GHOST STORY
THE OLD WOMAN IN THE QUEER
DRESS UNDER AN OAK TREE.

She Aiways Appeared to Announce IN APP
preaching Death In the F~amiiy-she Was
Probably . Servant who Lad Becn Foul.
IL Dealt with In Ancient Days.
Everybody laughs in these days at
tho old story Of the Irish banshee, - said
q gentleman Of national reputation late.
~ as he chattcd with q friend or two
in the Office Of the Continental, "and l
AM not saying but that 1t was but o 80.
perstition after all, though there Is O
little thing connected with my family
that is o strange coincidence. to call IL
even that.
"Once, when I was . boy. I woke up
during the night weeping bitterly, and
when my mother came to my bedside ]
told her that I had dreamed that o queer.
ly dressed old woman had come to me
under q largo oak tree and had warned
me that my brother Leonard, who WA my
senior by several years, was going to die
very soon. / noticed then that instead
Of calming my fears my mother listened
to me without saying q word, and pres
emily I saw that she, too, was crying AZ
hard as I was. / asked what was the
matter, and though she put mo of I did
not forget the strange effect on her that
my dream had produced.
ut could not have been q week after
that that my brother came in one after.
noon from school and said no was going
TO join q party Of young people in o
sleighing excursion to the next town.
My mother was very unwilling for him
to 20 and confessed to all sorts Of nerv.
Gus fears, very unlike her usual calm
and self reliant self, but my brother
insisted and at last went of. followed
by my mothers anxious eyes. Within
three hours we received q telegram say.
ing that no had been killed by the horses
attached TO the sleigh becoming fright.
ened, and, running away near . railroad
track had thrown my poor brother un-
der the wheels Of q train.
when his mangled body came home,
my mother met It, saying to her sister,
who was visiting ut house for the
day: 4 knew 1t, Fanny. H. here saw
her tho other night, and for q long
time 1 wondered who the her referred
to could be. / was nearly grown when
! again saw tho old woman Of my boy.
hood dream. ! was about to graduate ut
u home university and was studying
hard for the final examinations and was
sitting up late one night reading over
some questions In mental philosophy
when l dropped of to sleep in my chair.
"Then l dreamed Of standing once
more under o large oak tree, which was
particularly marked about the bark by
y ring about three feet above the ground.
Here I was, facing Nh old woman in .
servants dress Of the thirteenth or four.
teenth century, I should judge, and this
old woman vas telling me that I would
sec my father no moro in life. I was q
good deal worried wei this dream, re-
membering my former one and its trag-
ic sequence, but had ceased to think Of
1t in the hurry and anxiety Of tho ex-
aminations, when one day old Professor
b. called to me rs l was passing from
n classroom to another and asked,
H., isn't your father in Switzerland?'
II replied that hc was, for his health
had failed so alarmingly for months
past that he had been ordered abroad
and had been rapidly getting well in
the mountains Of Switzerland. He had
recently joined the English party in an
expedition to Mont Blanc and had writ
ten In fine spirits regarding the trip.
Professor b. said no more, but I came
across In n few minutes a newspaper
containing an account Of an American
who had been killed by falling down q
wi in tho Swiss Alps.
mo particulars were known or given
by the paper, but I knew-oh, yes, ]
knew-that the American was my father,
aud SO 1t proved. ] told my widowed
mother Of the strange coincidence Of my
second dream, and she replied that thu
warning would never fail; that IL had
gone with her through her life, and tina
her mother had told her that this strang,
phantom had also given her warning O.
every disaster she had experienced. TIL,
old woman, whoever she was, was al
ways accompanied in her missions O
woe by the oak tree marked Oh I hav,
said. The whole thing is a mystery I,
us, but it is true, every word Of it.
IF the thing IL something supernat
ural, none Of us has any idea who tn
woman could have been or why she cam,
like q bird Of i'll omen to prophesy evi
to q plain American family, SAM castle
sans legends, sans romance. And /, 70
one, am particularly interested In VIII,
the oak tree should have come down I
US in connection with the ghost. Iwoul
somehow hate to think that som
doughty ancestor of mine had, after tn
playful little manne Of tho good oil
times, put some faithful servant to deaf
In a way in which an oak tree took
prominent part, but I should not be SUI
prised IL he did; indeed I have a sneal
ing belief that that is the true explans
ton OF the whole thing, though I a,
sorry that same servant is so unforgi,
ing as to take 1t out OH me by bringin
me bad news, which, il she'd only wa
long enough, would reach mo with pr,
verbal rapidity. ''-Philadelphia Time