Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1898-11-23

Ou0 you dIo uOW LIVING LII, esAo ~ a~o
it's early traditions One is that car
riage perfectly noiseless, drawn by
horses through which you can see the
moonlight, haunts the high road at in
tervals and flies through the gloomy for
est road we have christened Of late years
Lost Mans lane. It is a superstition
possibly, but you cannot find many fam
lilies in town but believe in it as fact,
for there is not an old man or woman
| in the place but has either seen it in
the past or has had some relative who
has seen it. 1t passes only at night and
is thought to presage some disaster to
the one who sees it. My husbands un-
Gle died the next morning after it flew
by him on the highway. Fortunately
years elapse sometimes between its 60
ing and coming again. 1t is ten years,
I think they say, since it was seen last.
Poor little Rob! 1t has frightened him
almost out of his wits"
II should think so," cried with be-
coming credulity. "But how came he
to see it? l thought you said it only
passed at night"
"At midnight" she repeated. "But
Rob, you see, is nervous lad, and night
before last he was so restless he could
not sleep, so he begged to be put in the
window to cool off. This his mother
did, and he sat there for good half
hour alone, looking out at the moon
light As his mother is an economical
woman there was no candle lit in the
room, so he got his pleasure out Of the
shadows which the great trees made on
the highroad till suddenly-you ought
to hear the little fellow tell it-he felt
the hair rise on his forehead and all his
body grow stiff with terror that made
his tongue like lead in his mouth. A
something thing he would have
called q horse and carriage in the day
time. but which in this light and under
the influence of the mortal terror he
was in took on d.. torted shape which
made it unlike any team he was accus-
toned to-was going by, not as if being
driven over the earth and stones OF the
road, though there was driver in front,
driver with an odd three cornered
hat on his head and cloak about his
shoulders, such as he remembered as
having seen hanging in his grandmoth-
er's closet but as If it foated along
without sound or stir-in fact, specter
team which seemed to find its proper
destination when it turned in Lost Mans
lane and was lost among the shadows OF
that i'll reputed road"
"Pshaw," was my spirited comment
as she paused to take her breath and see
how I was affected by this grewsome
tale. "A dream of the poor little ladl
He had heard stories Of this apparition
and his imagination supplied the rest. "
"No; excuse me, madam, but this Is
the very point of the tale. He had been
carefully kept from hearing any such
stories, having enough to do to bear his
own troubles without that. You could
see this was true by the way he told
about it. He hardly believed what he
had seen himself 1t was not till some
foolish neighbor blurted out "Why,
that was the phantom carriage" that
he had any idea he was not relating any
thing but dream.
My second pshaw was no less mark
ed than the first.
''He did know about it, notwlthstand-
ing" insisted. "Cnly he had forgot
ten the fact. Sleep supplies us with
these lost memories. Weremember then
what may never recur to us in the day
| time"
Every true, and you might be right,
Miss Butterworth, if he had been the
only one to see this apparition. But
Widow Jenkins saw it, too, and she ls
a woman to be believed.
This was becoming serious.
"Saw it before or saw it after?" /
asked. "Does she live on the highway
or somewhere in Lost Mans lane?"
"She lives OH the highway about a
half mile from the station. She was up
with her sick husband and saw it just
as it was going down the hill. She said
it made no more noise than cloud slip
ping by. She expects to lose old Rause.
No one could see such thing as that,
she says. and not have some misfortune
follow"
I laid all this up in my mind. My
hour of waiting was not likely to prove
wholly Improbable.
"You see, )" the good woman went on,
with a relish for the marvellous that
stood me in good stead, There is al old
tradition of that road connected with
a carriage. Years ago, before any of US
were born and the house where you are
was gathering place for all the gay
young bloods of the county, young
man came up from New York to visit
Mr.. Knollys. I do not mean the father
or even the grandfather Of the folks you
are visiting, ma'am. He was great
grandfather to Lucetta, and very fine
gentleman if you can trust the pictures
that are left Of him. But my story has
not to do with him. He had daughter
at that time, a widow of great and
sparkling attractions, and though she
was older than the young man I have
mentioned every one thought it would
be q match, she was so handsome and
such all heiress.
But he failed to pay his court to
her, and though he was handsome him
self and made fool of more than one