The Forest Republican. [volume] (Tionesta, Pa.) 1869-1952, 1896-02-05

shadow which
hung over their house for nearly q
hundred years, and to whose baneful
influence she must become habituated,
when member of the family.
When they first saw Clotilde, she
was so young and timid they made up
their minds to wait until Gaspard-him-
self came, but one night as they sat
around the great hall-fire there was q
great jingle of sleighbells and the
sound of swift runners on the crisp
snow outside, and then that muical
clash at the door which announced
the stopping of the turnout, and the
arrival of guests.
Surely there was nothiE uncommon
in this, the coming of party OF merry
people to country house, and on a
magnificent moonlight night when
the whole landscape was as light as
day Yet instead of looking pleased
or surprised, the ladies sank back in
their chairs, and covering their faces
with their hands, murmured O
prayer.
Clotilde. the little one, clapped her
hands, and asked earnestly:
.'Might it be, my friends, that it il
Gaspard, who has come with q sur.
prise?"
mo, no, Clotilde, it will not be ouI
Gaspard. Mon Dieu, how then shall
we tell her? Child, go you not to the
door? Those sleighbells you hear are
not of the flesh and blood mean
the driver is not"
But the little Olotilde had run joy
ously to the great hall door, and
though nc servant stood there to open
it, she swung it wide on its massive
hinges. A bitter blast of cold all
rushed in with a dreary, wailing
sound, and no sleigh stood outside,
but even as the startled girl watched
a clash of musical bells and the swift
sound of the steel-shod runners filled
the area of snow. She turned whittier
than lily in, the somber moonlight,
and flung the door to, affrighted.
"Come to the fire, little one; yor
have seen, then, our skeleton in tn,
closet?"
''I saw not any skeleton-nothing-
nothing, but 1 heard the bells -oh
what does it mean?" -
"You tell her, Agatha" said tn,
younger sister.
81 would greatly prefer that sht
should hear it from your lips, Oeeile,
answered the other. !. W &SAs I
81 am not afraid" said the gir
proudly. The color was coming bacl
to her lips and cheeks, and her eyel
sparkled. 1t could not be worse thar
the legends of the LonplGarou whiol
her uncle had told her since she was
child-not so very long ago that-bu
now she was q woman and would no
show fear.
''You will now know why cur Gas
pard has dark spells when not even hi
sweetheart can comfort hlm, why tn,
shadow is never lifted from our lives
and we cannot be quite like other peo
pie. Perhaps you will not then lik
to marry our brother. who is the bes
and dearest in the world, but like us
under the ban."
''It is the more / would love him i
might, when he has the trouble; bu
tell me, please, is it that some wicke
souls come back because that they can
not rest?"
"We know not, petite, but the stor,
is like this: So long ago, maybe, tina
not our oldest relation can remember
there was another Gaspard de From
tenac, brave, good man like this one
but hot-headed and fiery. And yo
know, the steep hills that shut us il
so. high with the big ravine--th
| precipice on either side? And in th
winter there was always'snow, and tn
people went coasting and sleigh-ridin
with swift horses down those long hills
but never could two meet, for tn
road was Just the width for one sleigh
and the people all knew this, and the
waited at the plateau on the top, an
each took his turn.
at was my great unele's pleasure t
take his young wife and go out o
these steep hills and drive her like th
wind with a swift flying horse, an
she loved the sport aud wrapped i
! furs. with her eurls floating in ii