The Madison daily leader. [volume] (Madison, S.D.) 1890-current, 1894-05-22
ATRUE GHOST STORY
THE OLD WOMAN IN THE QUEER
DRESS UNDER AN OAK TREE.

She Always Appeared to Announce an APP
proaching Death In the Family-she Wa
Probably o Servant wins Had Been FOUL
" Dealt with I'm Ancient Days.
Everybody laughs in these days at
the old story of the Irish banshee, y said
o gentleman OF national reputation late.
" as he chatted with q friend or two
In the Office Of the Continental, ''and !
am not saying but chat il was but a 81
perstition after all, though there is a
little thing connected with my family
that is a strange coincidence. to call it
even that
''Once, when ] was a boy, / woke up
during the night weeping bitterly, and
when my mother came to my bedside ]
told her that / had dreamed that a queer
" dressed old woman had come to me
under~a large oak tree and had warned
me 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
to me without saying q word, and pres
emily / saw that she, too, was crying as
hard as ] was. I asked what was the
matter, and though she put me off I did
not forget the strange effect ON her that
my dream had produced.
''It could not have been q week after
that that my brother came i'm one after
noon from school and said he was going
to join q party Of young people in a
| sleighing excursion to the next town.
| My mother was very unwilling for him
to go and confessed to all sorts of nerv-
GUS fears, very unlike her usual calm
and self reliant self, but my brother
insisted and ut last went of, followed
by my mothers anxious eyes Within
three hours we received q telegram say
ing that he had been killed by the horses
attached to the sleigh becoming fright
ened, and, running away nea q railroad
track had thrown my poor brother un-
der the wheels Of q train.
"When his mangled body came home,
my mother met 1t, saying to her sister,
who was visiting at n house for the
day: I knew it, Fanny. FL. here saw
her the other night, and for a long
time I wondered who the her referred
to could be. / was nearly grown when
I again saw the old woman of my boy
hood dream. / was about to graduate nj
our 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 ! dropped off to sleep in my chair.
"Then / dreamed Of standing once
more under a large oak tree, which was
particularly marked about the bark by
q ring about three feet above the ground.
Here I was, facing an old woman in o
servants dress of the thirteenth or four.
teenth century, I should judge. and this
old woman was telling me that ! would
see my father no more in life. / was {
good deal worried over this dream, re
10 sequence, +DaH Bit f9nEaaaaeg Qae and itg tag
it in the hurry and anxiety of the ex
aminations, when day old Professo
B. called to me as / was passing from
one classroom to another and asked
H, isn't your father in Switzerland
1T replied that he was, for his healtl
had failed 70 alarmingly for month
past that he had been ordered abroas
and had been rapidly getting well il
the mountains of Switzerland. He hat
recently Joined the English party I'm al
expedition to Mont Blanc and had writ
ten in fine spirits regarding the trip
Professor B. said no more, but ] CAM
across in a few minutes a newspape
containing an account of an American
who had been killed by falling down
crevasse in the Swiss Alps.
"No particulars were known or given
by the paper, but I knew-eh, yes,
knew-that the American was my father
and SO it proved. I told my widowet
mother of the strange coincidence OF N,
second dream, and she replied that TIL
warning would never fail; that it hat
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. tn,
old woman, whoever she was, was al
ways accompanied in her missions b
woe by the oak tree marked as / hav,
said. The whole thing is a mystery tt
Ms, but it is true, every word Of it.
IF the thing is something supernat
ural, lone OF rs has any idea who tn,
woman could have been or why she cam.
like a bird of i'll omen to prophesy evi
to a plain American family, sans castle
sans legends, ans romance. And /, fo
one, am particularly interested in VIII,
the oak tree should have come down Ii
MS i'm connection with the ghost. Iwoult
somehow hate to think that SOM
doughty ancestor of mine had, after th'
playful little manner OF the good oil
times, put some faithful servant TO dealt
in a way in which an oak tree took
prominent part, but I should hot be SIN
prised If he did; indeed / have q sneak
ing belief that that is the true explana
ton of the whole thing, though I an
sorry that same servant is 50 unforgiy
ing as TO take it out ON me by bringin
me bad news. which, il she'd only wal
long enough, would reach me with pre-
verbal rapidity. philadelphia Times
Entertained.
Aurelia tanxiously)-Have You see
II 49, ALto ~-..ax--A-.~Z0 wrwx