Edgefield advertiser. [volume] (Edgefield, S.C.) 1836-current, 1896-02-19
pass they could not. Aud h. shoutad
to the other driver to halt!

| WV
the other sleigh, fast like the wind,
and my great uncle Gaspard saw that
it would into him crash, and he
quickly drew pistol, and fred to
kill the horse, before i: was
too late. And his own horse,
he get such fright he plunge over
the side, throwing him out, but taking
his bride down to death!
"He lived, but like a man in a
dream, till some one tell him the
truth that on that night there was no
other sleigh but his own, and that he
sew the shadow was of his own, in
some way I know not the exact, tne
moonlight make that effect by what
you call projecting the shadow. and
when he know that, he take again the
pistol and with it end his misery and
his life"
| A long silence succeeded this weird
tale and then Clotilde asked in o
broken voice:
sis it then that the sleighis ghost?"
''Yes, petite, a-what you call phan-
tom."
81 am not afraid. I accept, and
will pray to give the poor ghosts
peace"
1t was not like the Loup- -Garou, moi
to the mind of Olotilde half as dread
full, but she was not really afraid of
these because her old uncle had much
sense, and he did not believe one oil
these stories, although tell them he
did, and most graphically.
Again on the following evening
came the sound of bells, and this time
Clotilde went not near the door, but
sat moving her sweet lips in prayer.
Then the door was flung violently
open and brusque, CHEEKY voice
called:
"Hello, there, Victor, Alphonse, you
varlets, where are you hiding?"
Certainly this was no ghost, and the
three women who clung about his neck
gave frantic evidence Of Joy at his
coming. Clotilde was not one of the
three. A big old man in fo1-skin
coat had taken her in his arms, and
was talking to her in gentle burr, the
old uncle who told her the dreadful
stories, and then she slipped one small
hand into her lovers and looked at him
with shy, happy eyes.
"It was SO good of you to come in
stead of the ghosts" she said, when
later they sat cooingir corner, while
the uncle, who was q great favorite
with the young Gaspard, was making
himself agreeable to the ladies.
ssThen you know, dear little one?"
said the young man. tAnd you are
not afraid to make your home in the
Chateau Frontenac?"
"Not with my Gaspard," came the
soft answer, "but I like it better if the
ghosts came not, and your sisters,
they are sorry, too. But afraid-no"
'What of this so much being
afraide" asked gruf voice, and the
old uncle Of Clotilde hobbled over to
the corner where snstches of their
Then he was told f6e story 81 the
ghostly sleigh, and looked wise and
thoughtful for the rest of the evening.
The shrewd French Canadian was
filled with marvellous stories of ghosts
which he loved to relate, but none of
which he believed, not even his stock
fright-story, the legendary Loup-
Garou.
The next morning Uncle Pierre was
missing from the chateau, but no one
was disturbed, he had taken his gun,
and would return when he pleased,
which was at nightfall. and simultan.
eously with his coming rang out the
jangling, invisible bells.
He found the family shivering
around the great fire as if they wei e
stricken with deadly cold. Even Gas.
pard looked troubled and the litt'.
Clotilde was trying to assure hin lat
she was not-"Oh, no, not least
afraid!''
"Fine is the night" he said in salu.
tation, sand the air is the clear, 80
you hear-r-r, oh, so far! Heard you
not, my Clotilde, the sleighbells that
come me with?"
"Ob, oh," cried the ladies of the
chateau in faint chorus; "the bells
do make our hearts to shake" and
they said an audible prayer.
"What you make afraid? Not the
bells of echo, that the wind do bring
to your door for the too sweet music9
Pahl Ghost is it, not at all, but the
r-r-ravine, and the hills, they do make
of the bells of the sleighing companle,
the echo which for the minute stop
at your door; tits echo always this SO
many years that you think it the
ghostsl"
Uncle Pierre was compelled to es.
cape from the room when the family
had accepted his scientific explana-
tion, which he further elaborated in
their native tongue, he was so over.
whelmed with thanks and praises.
So the shadow was lifted forever
from the house Of Frontenac, and the
story which had 60 sad an ending and
was accountable for the ghost, is no
longer related as the cause of such
dreary effect, and it is now the pleas
ure of the ladies of the chateau, as it
once was the adherence, to ask visit
ors to listen to the $50 strange echo,
and out of the materials of tragedy
they have really evolved comedy
Detroit Free Press.