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


DRESS UNDER AN OAK TREE.
She Always Appeared 10 Announce IN Ap-
preaching Death In the F~amiiy-shs Wa
Probably . Servant Who Had Been Foul.
~ Dealt with In Ancient Days.
Everybody laughs in these days ct
The old story Of tho Irish banshee. +" said
3 gentleman Of national reputation late.
y as no chatted with . friend OF two
IN the Office Of the Continental, land I
am not saying but that II wa but O su-
perstition after all. though there IL o
little thing connected with my family
that 10 . strange coincidence, TO call II
lsvsn 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.
" dressed old woman had come TO me
under q large oak tree and had warned
mo that my brother Leonard, who was my
senior by several years, was going to die
very soon. ! noticed then that instead
Of calming my fears my mother listened
70 me without saying . word, and pres.
emily I saw that she, too, was crying as
hard "a I was. / asked what was the
matter, and though sho put mo OF I did
not forget the strange effect IN her that
my dream had produced.
1T could not have been o week after
that that my brother came in one after
noon from school and said he 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 60 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 eyea Within
three hours we received o telegram say.
ing that no had been killed by the horses
attached 10 the sleigh becoming fright.
ened, and, running away near . railroad
tack 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 u house for tho
day: I knew 1t, Fanny. II. here sow
her the other night, and for Q long
time I wondered who the her referred
70 could bo. I was nearly grown whom
! again saw tho old woman Of my boy
hood dream. ! was about to graduate at
u homo university and was studying
hard for the Anal examinations and was
sitting up late n night reading over
some questions In mental philosophy
when I dropped of to sleep in my chair.
"Then ! dreamed Of standing once
more under q large oak tree, which was
particularly marked about the bark by
. ring about three feet above the ground.
l Hero I was, facing an old woman In q
servants dress Of the thirteenth or four.
teenth century, ! should Judge, and this
old woman was telling me that ! would
SEQ my father no more In life. I was q
good deal worried over this dream, re-
Numbering my former one and it's trag-
ic sequence, but had ceased to think Of
II In the hurry and anxiety Of tho OK.
aminations, when ono day old Professor
b. called to mo NJ ! was passing from
n classroom to another and asked,
H, isn't your father In ~Switzerland?'
II replied that no was, for his health
had failed 80 alarmingly for months
past that no had been ordered abroad
and had been rapidly getting we'll in
the mountains Of Switzerland. He had
recently Joined tho English party in an
expedition to Mont Blanc and had writ.
ten In fine spirits regarding the trip.
Professor d. said no more, but ! came
across In q few minutes q newspapc,
containing m account Of nh American
who had been killed by falling down Z
crevasse In the Swiss Alps.
mo particulars were known or givcr
BY tho paper, but l knew-oh, yes, ]
knew-that the American was my father,
and SO 1t proved. ! told my widowed
mother Of the strange coincidence Of III,
second dream, and she replied that tn,
warning would never fail; that IL hat
gone with hor through her life, and tina
her mother had told her that this strane,
phantom had also given her warning O
every disaster She had experienced. Tn,
old woman, whoever she was, was al
ways accompanied in her missions O
woe by the oak tree marked AZ / hav,
said. The whole thing IL q mystery I,
IA, but 1t is true, every word Of II.
IF tho 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 a plain American family, q II castle
sans legends, san romance. And I, 70
one, am particularly interested in VIII,
the oak tree should have come down /
us In connection with the ghost. Iwoul
somehow hate TO think that som
doughty ancestor of mine had, after tn
playful little manner OF the good Of
times, put some faithful servant to deaf
IN . way in which nm oak tree took
prominent part, but I should not DO SUI
prised II he did; indeed I have a sneal
ing belief that that is the true explans
tion Of the whole thing, though I a,
sorry that Same servant IL 30 unforgi,
lng an to take II out on me by bringin
me bad news, which, II she'd only wa
hong enough. would reach mo with pr,
verbal rapidity. philadelphia Time