The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1896-01-29
The Gh0Stly ManiftS.
tati0nS Of Aunt
DruSilla.
BY ELISABETH PULLEN,
Author of "The Man from Aldone."
Copyright 1896 by Bacheler. johnson and Bachellsr

| nephew; his aunt had quarreled with
his father when Holman was boy;
each had gone his own way. with dumb
and grim illwill on the sisters part,
with Indifference on that Of the brother.
Holman Brockway cared nothing for
his fathers old feud; he was willing to
accommodate his aunt and to take hold
of the farm run to waste. There was
another reason which weighed with
him; his daughter, Corinna. during a
recent visit to the city near which was
the village where Miss Drusilla lived.
had become engaged to young man
there. The lovers wrote to each other
daily.
81 guess, Corinny, We shall have to
move down to Maine. to save postage
stamps" the father said good-hu-
moredly.
With that Jest the matter was settled.
They gave up the rented house. ana
went to live with Aunt Drusilla. The
farm showed promise; the land had
long lain idle: but Holman Brockway
found 1t to have a soil mixed with sand
and decomposed peat. which would
grow big vegetbles. Miss Drusilla had
tultlNdltu IL t'at'h' N"S"S' 80
her own use, which she reluctantly
praised as having done as we'll as
other folks gardens. fur's ! know
Holman's wife thought the house
rather inconvenient but 1t was sunny
and had pleasant outlook. Corinna
was happy because 1t was not u long
walk to the ferry which connected the
village with the city; and it is certain
that Herbert Jennison spent his sub
stance on rioutous commutation tickets
At the landing he sometimes round
Corinna waiting for him. and they en-
joyed the stroll up the hill to the house,
which stood on the crest. biistling with
rocks and bushes. Corinna's parents
liked the young man; he was clean ana
honest. eager to learn and to make his
way in the world.
1t was all smooth sailing until Aunt
Drusilla blew W. gale. she was
formidable power as she lay IN her peu
in the ground floor room which she re-
served to herself. This was intended
by the builder of the house for an Office;
Miss Drusilla's father had been a law
yer 1t was Il one-story room, PROJECT
ing from the southern side or the
house. Nothing hourished there but
a few stalks of gaunt and hoary null
! lein; even in June the herbage yell
lowed-somebody had said that
Squire Brockway's law was so dry that
1t made hay of the grass. Near the side
window stood q birch tree: 1t had
grown uD impeded by a sharp splinter
of granite so that its roots were quite
out of the ground, clasping the rock
like skeleton arms. This tree, in its tat
tered shroud of white bark leaned
toward the window as If to peer in.
From the other, the front window, Miss
Drusilla peered out; nothing that
passed along the road could escape her
notice. Neither did anything that took
place in the house. "Your aunt has got
an extra sense. more than the rest of
the people," Sarah Brockway told her
husband. She heard every step, every
fall Of crockery; she shifted every
Overbaked loaf, every scOrched kettle
holder. She would have all things go
on in her own way, which was that of
her parents before her--curious sparings
and parings; unweildly stores of vege-
tables kept in the cellar to be constant
| ly culled over, or else breed diseases A
certain yellow and white striped pitch
er was devoted to yeast, which she
called "emptins'' and would have
homemade, with much pains and with