Pawtucket tribune. (Pawtucket, R.I.) 1890-189?, 1895-09-06
A GHOST STORY.

1 &OU many yootu o8V p0op4O uuou W uuo0'
at ghosts and ghost stories much mors
than they do now, and ono would con
stantly hear people whisper to ono anoth
| or her experience; "Ah, Il Il very odd tha
these ghost stories should always be relat.
| cd at second or third hand. Now, wan
to sec person who personally has seen the
ghost, and then will believed
Yes, people are moro accustomed Il
hearing about ghosts now, and yet ever
now should 1t be wife, daughter or sister
who ventures to narrate some supernatural
experience she Is poohpoohed, or laughed
| at, or told to "take pill"
Now, have seen a ghost and am pre-
| pared to attest most solemnly to the fact
| as we'll as to the truth of every word here
SGT down. / have Of course avoided names,
but nothing else, SO, without further pre-
| amble, will state my case.
Some years ago became the object OF
the infatuated alteration Of person OF my
own age and sex, and use the word Sin
fatuated" advisedly, because feel now,
as did at tho time, that neither i nor any
mortal that over lived could possibly be
worthy of the overwhelming affection
which my poor friend lavished upon me.
I, on my side, was not ungrateful toward
her, for loved her In return very dearly,
but when explain that I was a wife and
the mother of young ohildren, and that
she was unmarried, 1t will easily BIO un-
derstood that our devotion to each other
must Of necessity be rather one sided, and
this fact caused some dispeace between us
at times.
For many years my friend held post at
court, which she resigned soon after sho
began to know me, and although her royal
mistress, IN her gracious kindness, assign
cd two houses to her she gave them both
up to be free to live near me In P.
Indeed she gave up relatives, old servants
and comforts In order that she might como
and live land die, alasD In lodgings, over
q shop, near me. Bot she was not happy.
She "gloomed" over the inevitable fact
that, in consequence Of the differences In
her home circumstances and mine, could
not be with her every day and all day
long. I think she was naturally OF an
unhappy disposition, being deeply, pas
sionately and unjustif1ably Jealous, and
also painfully incapable OF taking things
and people as they We're. All this gave mo
often much annoyance, but we were, all
the same, sometimes very cheerful and
happy together and sometimes the re-
verse.
Later on, she, poor soul, was taken III,
and during months Of fuctuating health l
nursed her-sometimes In hope, eometimas
without-and at moments during her I'LL
ness she found strange comfort In foretell-
ing 10 me, after the most "uncanny" fash
Ion, things which she declared would hap
pen to me after her death. They were
mostly rivialities-little episodes concern
ing people and things over whom we had
talked and laughed together, for she was
gifted with keen sense of the ridiculous.
Among other things she said to me one
afternoon:
"This bazaar for which we are work
ing'' (she had been helping me for weeks
for charity bazaar, and con now sec her
dainty little hands as she manipulated the
delicate muslin and lace; poor, poor
L-D-"I shall be dead before 1t takes
place, and I shall SEQ you at your STALL and
on one Of the days Of the bazaar an old
lady will come up to you and say: Have
you ony Of poor Miss Is work. (men-
fioning me.) And you will answer, Yes;
here Is some, and you will show her this
which am working, and she II say, Have
you any morey and you'll say Yes again,
and she'll carry 1t all off and say she buys
IL for poor Miss LIS sake And I
shall know and SEQ 1t alll'
remember repeating wonderingly,
"What ladyP''
She answered dreamily: "Ob I don't
know, but some old lady You'll seep'
And am bound to say this Is actually
what occurred at the bazaar, months after
her death. An old lady, with whom was
not acquainted, did buy all her work, hav-
ing asked for 1t and carrying 1t away for
her saker' An old lady, too, whom I had
never seem
One other curious circumstance which
attended her death was that, after looking
forward with more than usual pleasure to
my coming birthday (Which she said would
be "a more than commonly happy ami
versary) that was the very day on which
she died.
think that one Of the sharpest regrets
which / ever experienced In my life con-
sisted In the fact that was not with my
dearest friend ct the moment that she
passed away. She bad made me promise
that would be with her ot that time, and
God knows bad the fullest intention Of
fulfilling her wish, but ON that very even
ing, Of all others, was called away, and
she died In my absence. had been sit
ting by her bedside all the afternoon, and
all that evening had held her dear hand
and had kept whispering comforting
words in her ear, but latterly she had
made no response and was seemingly un-
conscious.
Suddenly q messenger came from my
house (not hundred yards IL was away
saying my husband wanted me at onoe, as
one Of my children was Ill. looked at
the nurse, who assured me there was moth
ing immediate impending, SO STOPPING
over my poor friend whispered, at the
same timo pressing kiss on her forehead,
that half an hour should see me at her
side again" But she took no notice, and
much against my will, hastily and noise
lessly left the room.
Throwing shawl over my head, hur-
ried across the square, and as passed the
church the clock struck ~, and sudden"
ly remembered that today was my birth
dayi
I got back In less than half an hour, and
| ON INV rot urn heard tO my everlastin no cor.