The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1900-01-03

eyes sought the cluster of pines on the
edge of the woods, that marked the
locality of the Haunted Spring.
What was it that paled her cheeks
and checked the warm life-current in
her veins as she gazed? Not the ghost2
Yes, surely it was the ghost-some-
thing white, dimly visible, threading
its way in and out among tho dark
trunks of the trees, now glimmering
into the patch of light, now disappear
ing entirely from view!
Hastily throwing a shawl over her
shoulders, Mabel ran across the hall
to the room where her Cousin Prudence
slept.
"Prudence!-oh, Cousin Prudence!
am so frightened!' she cried,
Enlightened, child WHAT'S the
matter?"
Miss Prudence-a fearful sight to
behold, between her cap-border and
curl-papers-sat up in bed, rubbing
her eyes.
"Come to my window, and see for
yourself" whispered Mabel, tremu-
lousy. ''The ghost!l'
Miss Prudence scrambled up, and
scudded across the hall, hurriedly as
Stunning her green calico "double
gown" as she went.
"Are you sure you. haven't been
asleep and dreaming, Mabel?" she
asked. ...
'I have not been in bed at all, Pru-
dence. There, look at it!''
She clung conyulsively to the spins
ter's arm. ......
Miss Prudence herself quailed as
the white thing glided across an open.
ing in the woods. when the moonlight
slept in momentary calm. ..
"It's the ghost, Mabel" stammered
Miss Prudence, recoiling from the
window. .
"It's the ghost, Cousin Prudence!"
sobbed Mabel, clinging still closer.
s'I wonder what Hiram would say
n. w" calculated Miss Prudence. tri.
umphantly, although little inclined
to be hysterical.
"Let's call hin!" suggested Mabel.
"And me in this double gown and
curl-papers? Bless your heart, child,
I should never hear the last of it! Be-
sides, he sleeps like "a log-it would
take ten men to waken him, after he's
once dropped off, until five o'clock,
when he wakes of himself, and"
She stopped abruptedly-for upon
the midnight silence there arose
wailing sound, between groan and
shrek, rising into discordant shrill-
ness, and then dying gradually away.
Another and another followed it. and
the two women huddled together,
looking each other blankly in the face.
"That's just exactly as Chloe de-
scribed it," whispered Prudence. "No
living creature ever made that atsound!"
Mabel shrank away from tho win
dow, with chill perspiration upon her
forehead.
''Let me go to your room with you,
Prudence. am afraid to stay alone"
she faltered-and Prudence could feel
the violent trembling of her every
limb. ''There is that frightful groan
again."
Miss Prudence led Mabel back to
her own apartment, and they lay down
together, drawing the bed-clothes over
their heads, and exchanging tremulous
whispers, as if the ghost could hear
them.
"Well, it's odd, I must say" began
the spinster, that I've lived here all
these years, and never seen it until
tonight. I do believe it is because
of you, Mabel"
Mabel shuddered. She was begin
ming to think it was not quite so nice
to live in haunted house, after all.
''Hush! What's that?" she sud-
denly calculated.
II think it's rats" said Miss Pru-
dence, tremulously.
NO; but that creaking sound!"
''That's the old butternut tree. 1t
often creaks so windy nights"
cousin Prudence, I'm sure the
curtain is moving"
''It's nothing but the draught. Lie
still and 60 to sleep child"
81 don't feel as if I could ever sleep
again, Prudence! Oh, what dread
full thing it is to think that the spirits
of the dead cannot rest peacefully!
Don't you believe that if minister
were to come and say some prayers or
something by the spring"
"I'm sure don't know" said Miss
Prudence, apparently unlearned in
the manners and c2stoms of spectres
in general.
"Isu't it almost morning, Cousin
Prudence?"
"No; it isn't one o'clock yet"
Sleep had fed from the eyelids OF
the two women. They turned, and
tossed, and whispered, until the pearly
tints of dawn, fairly coloring the east
ern sky, frightened into the ruddy
orange of sunrise, aud Hirasn's heavy
step, passing their door betokened
that the cares and duties of the day
had once more arrived. And then
they rose, pale and heavy-eyed, and
began their matutinal toilets.
"Why, girls, what's the matter?"
demanded honest Hiram, as he saw
the weight of mysterious meaning in
their faces. ass
Miss Prudence only shook her head
as sae broke the eggs into the frying
pan. but Mabel was less reticent. She
replied "a
N 5}-t 80 l.--. 40 x ~