The free press. (Poplarville, Miss.) 1890-19??, 1900-06-21
4 GHOST | Met.

DT REV. WIN. (. BARTON.


Ghosts seem to be popular just now;
II hear their noiseless tread and feel
their delightful literary shudder in
books and stories not a few. But once
L met a ghost, and he was less pleas
ant in life than in a book.
1t was the second year of my teach
ing school in the mountains of Ken
tncky. l had come to feel much at
home. and had ridden far and wide in
the hills Horses were at my disposal,
but / broke a mule to the saddle, and
Eode him through Cumberland Gap, in
to Virginia and back, hundred miles
and more | came to prefer Il mule
fOr long rides over the hills, but on
shorter rides l more frequently rode a
ciay-bank pony.
Early in this second year | formed
the habit of spending an evening each
week with the teacher in an adjacent
district. and this gave me regularly
81 ride home OF several miles in the
darS. 1t was made at least mile
ioaGer by the angle which the road
mae down to the ford
Tais extra mile I grudged most Of
al, and when the water was not too
high, l took a short cut through the
woods, striking the creek a mile higher
up. This way was by a mere Bride
path. which led through an old field
and along a ridge. and then through
"A half-mile of low growing beech trees.
where one had TO ride carefully to keep
OH his horse in the dark-and it was
dark in there.
One night I heard some animal
crashing through the underbrush
above me. and keeping near me until a
reached the creek. The next week l
heard near at hand the pathetic. fear
some, half-human and half-fendish
cry of a panther. And so l took to car
rying revolver with me, and for a
time kept the main road
But a moonlight night brought me
hack to my short cut again. and l kept
it thenceforth. even if once or twice
the water was high enough to set my
horse to swimming. But the longer
road, l dare say, would sometimes
have proved the shorter way home.
At least, there was one time when it
would have saved me a fright and a
delay.
There was only one house on the
shortcut road. if I may it road. 1t
was the deserted cabin belonging to
tae old fields, and it stood not far from
the highway. A disagreeable story
was told about it, and uncomfortable
things We're alleged to have been seen
FThaea oGsnciataI
not only with the house. which stood
with gaping door and sunken roof and
tumble-down stick chimney, but also
with the dead sycamore-tree that stood
IN the fork of the path below the
house.
III truth, the tree looked fearsome
enough at night. It stood out so white
and bare, SO gallows-like and so me-
Racng. that it alone might well have
been an object of fear \ ghost of Z
tree it w2s-rooted in its own grave.
a bleak. white tombstone of a tree.
hooked at it as | rode under it, with
Il certain half-eXpectation of seeing
some alarming thing happen there.
1t came one chill, drizzly night,
There We're occasional angry splits of
rain, with long-separated and far-dis-
tant glows of lightning 1t was a shiy-
ering, creeping night, with touch of
something in the air that led one to
anticipate trouble | remember dis
tinCty that my friend said to me as
left This is the very night to see
ghost
L tlilk l really expected to see some
thing that night. The shudder of it
was in the bones Of things in general,
and l could feel it creeping into my
own. And l never doubted that the
place to see it was the dead sycamore
tree. Yet there was certain fascina-
fion in the prospect which made me
take the short cut. l did not want to
see what was there yet l could not
bring myself to avoid it.
So the tree came in sight and at the
view l started. There it stood white
against the background of the haunted
house butt n.Cst be mistaken, yet |
could not be-the trunk was unusually
white tonight l cast my eye along
it. The eight feet at the bottom were
so white that by comparison the upper
part looked dark And Just as l began
to assure myself. against my conyic-
zion and the evidence of my senses,
that it was only Imagination, my horse
gave a snort and made a quick turn
with me. There was no doubt about it
now. There was something there.