The record-union., 1894-08-11

ana DraWny housewives TO LHe SIlllHy
door. Crouching behind 1t the watching
miners were chattering and mumb bling III
superStitious fear.
They pulled and pushed the mute dom
key and its cart within the shadowy
place. White as a new washed fleece
they could see the donkey then. White
as driven snow were the donkey cart and
wheels. White as snow or death. the
stiffeneG objects, to which the pelting
| flakes had strangely nodded. White as
| the drifts in blossoming hawthorn lanes
the faces that they found beneath.
| For there lay the ringer of the tenor
| bell Of Stlthncy, with sand and tiny sea
shells and seaweed DRIFT in his grizzled
hair and beard, just as old Poll had laid
| his liteless body III her cart, and there be-
side it, too, her thin and shriveled hands
clutching the other ones against her
pulseless heart, lay Poll Treenoodle,
smile on her weazened face, for had not
their bells been rung, their bans called
out, and had not tho two at last become
as one in the everlasting sleep?
'Stithney would not ever since have
rested under the shadow of something
| like superstitious curse" perplexedly
remarked Rector Dunlea TO his daughter
Rose and their young literary friend
| from London, VIM. Hardy, as they sat to-
gether in the pleasant library OF the rect
ory, some three years later, mad not an
unaccountabie incident at that moment
| occurred"
He had been recounting the tragedy of
! three years before, and the awe and SOL
emnity which had overshadowed the will
ayers from the ghoStly return of the
dead when donkey, cart and mute bur-
dens had come with their appalling si-
lence out of the bitter storm to the open
smithy door.
They had got the frozen bodies
stretched stark upon a rude litter IN a
corner of the smithy, had covered them
tenderly with sheets from near house
wives stores, and were whispering
among each other, arranging for watch
ers OF the dead until morning, as is the
custom here in Cornwall, when there
burst upon their startled ears a mighty
clamor Of the old church tenor bell"
THAT was Joe's bell, Mr.. Hardy" in
terrupted Rose.
"Yes, it is the largest bell AS head
ringer Joe had rung that bell for more
than forty years. 1t had never been set
! for full peal before. 1t Numbered
madly for time. finally subsiding into
something like u toll, and at last died
tremulously away"
ut startled every one in StiJhney,
even us here at the rectory. from our beds
in fright" added Rose shudderingly.
"And brought all those in the smithy
to their knees in added terror" resumed
the rector, ''for their superstitious inn
aginations nothing short of some super
natural power could have rung Joe
Davy's bell as he lay there dead before
| them.
"'Lans! Joe's speris!-his ghost or
wraith-they cried as they tremblingly
crouched together. From that moment
to this the great bell has been the Ghost
Ill - e.
wildly about midnight OF each Christmas
Eve, but at no other time; and the villa
gers stoutly claim that this is done by
old Joe's ghostly hands"
''The old wives of the village have
many grewsome sayings, Mr.. Hardy,
which you should know" persisted Rose
with a keen interest which won grateful
response from the writer's Frightening
eyes. 81 can recall a few of them at this
moment. Here is one:
"'Ghaist beel, ghaist beel!
| Rings for a. not Weeded weelp
"This passes current as fine scorn in
the villages roundabout, particularly as a
reflection on the quarreisome nature of
some of our people. Another is:
18th Ghaist Beel o. Stithney
| Warns him best wed nav
"And many of the sailors and fisher
folk profess to have heard on that dread
full night, and to hear every night the
| bell is still mysteriously rung, these dole
full and distinctly repeated words in the
strokes of old Joe's bell:
"sAll-ye-'ave'n-swe sweehearts-off7n
-late-for-t -th'-handp
"There are others l will try and get for
you," she concluded, as he wrote the
couplets hastily in his notebook, but
these will serve to show how unhappy
superstition is completely interviewer
| with the villagers liyeSu
THAT is the worst of it." returned her
father discouragedly. 1T has greater in
fluence upon them than my pulpit. II
has brought hundreds of morbidly Curl
GUS people here. 1t has become the sub
iect of untrue, unjust trivial and most
Irritating newspaper comment. 1t has
actually rendered the living here almost
unbearable. More painful still, the ghost
bell rings on from year to year. and, sc
far. no human ingenuity has been able
to silence it. l would give" he added
with deep feeling, five years of my
life to discover a rational and clearly ex-
plainable cause for this manifestation,
and to have the tongue of this ghost-bell
stilledn'
William Hardy was writer Of the day
who fortunately recognized an opportu-
nifty when he saw it, tor he asked quietly,
without raising his eyes from his note
book or betraying the slightest emotions:
Instead of five years of your useful
life would you not rather bestow the
hand of Rose here upon an acceptable
suitor?"
The girl, suffused with bushes, fled
precipitately from the library, but any
one, save perhaps father distraught by
ghosts or ghost bells, could easily have
seen where her heart and wishes lay.
Rector Dunlea turned and faced the
young writer in utter amaZement, al
laf
imperturbably, and finally turned his
eyes full upon the clergyman's face. Per-
haps because they were honest eyes, in q
moment more both faces had broken into
pleasant smiles.
well, well. well, Hardy, isn't this a
little abrupt"
Lets call it straightforward. Is it an
agreement?"
"Yes, yes-if [ find"
''That the party of the third part. who,
in this instance, is the real party of the
first part, is willing to thus covenant
and agree?" replied young Hardy radi-
antly.
"Oh, of course, of coursel Well, we'll,
well! That ghost bell is working strange
havoc in Stithney parish!"
Upon this William Hardy, securing
the key to the church tower, began his
Investigations amid the smiles and shrug-
gings of the villagers as hundreds had
done before him.
He first made sure that no human be-
ing could have entered the belfry to mis-
chlevously affect the ghostly action OF
night, he "set'' the bell, as the ringers
set them all for the annual Christmas
peal. hoping by some fortunate chance
occurrence to dispel the supernatural
character of the single yearly happening,
but the bell remained upright and ST.
lent.
He now visited the belfries of sur