St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1895-03-04
GHOSTS IN MY TOWER.
BY FRANK r.. STOCKTON.

tall, wide tower, rising high above
the trees which surround it, In one
of the upper rooms of this tower l
work and think, and here, in the
evening and in the early part of the
night, l used to be quite alone ex-
cept for the ghosts.
Before 1 had come to this house I
knew that the tower was haunted,
but did not mind that.
AS the ghosts had never done any
one any harm / did not believe they
would do me any harm, end L
thought l should really be glad of
their company, which must certainly
be different from the company of
other people.
So when l had arranged an upper
room in the tower so that | might
pleasantly work and think therein,
expected the ghosts to come to me-
and should have been very much dis
appointed if they had not
L did not exactly understand these
ghosts, of which L had heard moth
ing definite, except that they haunt
ed the tower, and 1 did not know in
what way they would manifest them
selves to me. 1t was not long, how
ever, after l had begun to occupy
the room before the ghosts came to
me.
One evening little before Christ
mas, after everybody in the house but
myself had gone to bed and all was
nd
knock and was on the point of
saying Come in when the knock
was repeated, and I found that it
did not come from the door, but
from the wall 1 smiled.
You cannot come in that way" I
thought, unless there are secret
doors in these walls, and even then
you must open them yourself"
l went on with my writing, but
soon looked up again, for l thought
| heard chair gently pushed back
against the wall in a corner behind
me, and almost Immediately l heard
a noise as if some little boy had
dropped a number of marbles, or
perhaps pennies, but there was no
chair in the corner at which | looked
and there were no pennies nor mar
bleS on the floor.
Night after night L heard my
ghosts-for 1 had come to consider
them as mine, which l had bought
with the house - and although [
could not see them there were so
many ways in which they let me
know they existed that 1 felt for
them sort of companionship.
When in the quiet hours of the
early night 1 heard their gentle
knocks, l knew that were the cir
cumstances different they would
have been glad to come in, and 1 did
not feel lonely.
Now and then I thought I heard
the voices of the ghosts, sometimes
outside, under my window, and
sometimes behind me in a distant
corner of the room
Their tones were low and plaintive
and l could not distinguish words or
phrases, but it often seemed as if
they were really speaking to me,
and that l ought to try to under
| stand and answer them
But | soon discovered that those
voice-like sounds were caused by the
vagrant breezes going up and down
the tall chimney of the tower. max
ing Eolian tones, not of music, but
of vague and indistinct speech.
The winter passed, and at last
there came time when saw one of
the ghosts.
1t was in the dusk of an evening.
early in spring, and just outside of
an open window, that it appeared
to me. 1t was as plain to my sight
as II 1t had been painted in delicate
half tones against somber back
ground of tender foliage and even
ing sky.
1t was clad from head to foot in
softest gray, such as the phantoms
OF the night are said to love, and
over its shoulders and down it's up
right form were thrown the fleecy
folds of mantle so mistily gray that
1T seemed to blend into the dusky
f1gures 1T partly shrouded.
The moment l saw it knew it saw
me. Out of it's cloudy grayness there
shone two eyes, black, clear and
sparkling, fixed upon me with cues
tloning intensity. l sat, gazing with
checked breath at this ghost of the
| tower.
Suddenly I leaned forward-iust
httle-to get better view of the
apparition, when, like a bursting
pupple, 1t was gone, and there was
hotnlng before me but the back
ground of foliage and evening sky.
Frequently after that | saw this
ghost, or 1t may have been one of the
others, for it was difficult, with these
gray visions, with which one must
not speak or toward which if was
hazardous to move even a hand.
10 become so we'll acquainted that I
should know one from the other.
But there they were; not only did
near them; not only, night after night
did my ears assure me of their ex.
istence, but in the shadows of the
trees, as the summer came on. and on
the lonelier stretches of the lawn T
saw them. and 1 knew that in good
truth my home was haunted
Late one afternoon. while walking
IN my grounds, / saw before me one of
the specters of my tower. 1t moved
slowly over the lawn, scarcely seem
ing to touch the tips of the grass, with
no more sound than a cloud wouId
make when settling on hill top.
Suddenly it turned it's bright watch
lul eyes upon me, and then with a start
that seemed to send a thrill even
through the gray mantle which lightly
touched its shoulders, it rose before nv
very eyes until it was nearly as high
as the top of my tower!
Wings 1t had not, nor did it float in
the air; it ran like streak of gray
electricity along the lightning rod, only
instead of flashing down it, as cleo
tricity would pass from the sky, it
ran upwards.
did not see this swiftly moving
spirit reach the topmost point of the
rod, for, at a point where the thick