The Bourbon news. [volume] (Paris, Ky.) 1895-19??, 1898-07-08
AN APPARITION.


connoitered, then rose and walked lightly
but boldly to the bed The gas was burn
ing dimly revealing in the lace draped
couch 4-year-Old child. Her fleecy curls
were tossed round her flushed face, and
the restless movements, the frown of pain
on the white forehead, showed plainly
that she was not sleeping the sleep of per-
feet health.
kid looks bad" commented Brickey,
looking down a moment on the pretty
picture. Nurse skipped to make a night
Of it an locked the kid in to git along all
by herself alone. Blamed if she amt put
the lamb to bed with that cold, shiny
necklace a-chokin her. She shan't be
chOked-nO, she shant!''
! STOPPING, the benevolent visitor loosen
ed the slender coral chain deftly from the
dimpled neck.
"Brickey brac! brickey -brao!" he NUT
tered disparagingly. TOO muchl Piles
of money spent on trash that amt worth
carryin off, an the town full of suffering
burglars. It's shame. Hellor"
| He turned round quickly at a queer
sound from the bed, and put his hand on
the ugly looking weapon at his side.
The strange choking sound had come
from her. The dimpled arms were tossed
over her head, and the face drawn and
crimson in an effort to breathe. One brassy
cough told the story
| THE deucel The young ones got the
croupr'
He looked down on the suffering child
with something like pity in his tough soul
An she'll choke in jiffy. I'd like to
have that nurse by the back of the neck
! just minute! Coin off an leavin that
sick kid with a burlgar Burglars amt
no trained nurses!'
The child seemed to breathe easier lust
! then.
"Tbat's the ticket Mabbe she'll pull
through. but it's gettin early. What's
this?''-- e.
| A fine old oil painting hung on tbe,op-
posite end OF the room. 1t was of very
! precise, very stiff, very .aristocratic elderly
woman in coal scuttle bonnet, and ev-
erything about her suggestive of rigid re-
| spectability. On the corner of the picture
frame hung that same bonnet, yellow with
! age.
| Family relic,' said Brickey, giving
way to his hnmOr, and detaching the bon
net from its peg he put it on his own
head. IF tho boys could see me now!"
Another brassy, ringing cough from the
bed drew Brickey's attention from mil
! linery.
Something ought to be DONE" Brickey
muttered anxiOuSly. Somebody ought
to be called. The kids chOkin to death. "
1t is probable that the little child would
have persisted "unaided by the physicians
but for a sudden idea that visited Brickey's
fertile brain just then, and which caused
him to double up with laughter.
~
fairy white lace. With the bonnet still on
his head, Brickey draped this round his
greasy clothes from neck to heels.
Passing softly into the passage, he
looked round a minute; then tried door
Oh the opposite side.
LOCKED tight an right acrost from the
darlin! This is the parents room, I'll
bet, )" was brickey's reflection as his skele-
ton key opened the lock nOiselessIy.
The dim light from dying fire revealed
on the bed q middle aged woman with
much the same severely respectable fea-
lures as the picture in the child's room. A
gentle snOre arose from her thin and cor
rect nose az the ghostly figure gIided
across the room.
It-took a brief look at the dressing ia
bic, made a mysterious pass over heavy
jewel case, at which the case vanished
strangely; then turned toward the bed
But let Mrs. Hopkins tell the rest just
as she has told it scores of times since to
wondering friends and just as she wrote
1t up for tic Society of Mythical Research
Immediately after:
II had been sleeping, Henry being away
on important business in the country at
the time. was aW akened by the distinct
impression of q cold hand in contact witt
my brow. ! started; i opened my eyer.
Before me, distinctly visible in the evanes
cent light of the expiring enEers, stood
my deceased mother, Belvidere Prosperina
DOwdall, in her habit as she lived.
THE came bonnet, even, in which her
picture was taken over so years sgo''-hsre
the bonnet was invariably produced, hand
cd round and viewed with awe. "a misty
aureOle seemed to surround beg form.
al SprHng UPRIGHT She seemed to re-
cede. was speeohless! She looked down
on me sadly, warningly and waved her
hand!
Go 70 your ehtldr she said. Go to
your childp
"Then she seemed to fade away through
the open door, which positively recalled
having looked when 1 retired.
81 seemed impelled to follow. 1 was
1rresistibly drawn toward my daughter
room. There found the reason of this
most extraordinary manifestation. The
nurse had sIrreptitiously slipped away to
spend the night in the servants hall. Ny
child was writhing in the commissions of
Group. 1t was only by the most strenuous
exertions that we saved her life. But for
my dearest mothers timely appearance she
! would have died. "
Just then a dead silence Of creepy won
der always falls on the deeply impressed
company, and Mrs. Hopkins husband,
sitting meekly back in a corner, knows
better than to suggest a connection he
tween the hurgled house, open windows
and MiStre; Belvidere's ghost. He did it
once. He won't 90 it again.-LOndOn
News.
Won, but Walked Home.
As the shades Of night were closing ont