The Washington weekly post., 1900-11-13
OLD P4RKERS GHOST.

a big lot OF gold somewhere appealed 20
me very strongly. The sswmill and all
his horses were searched. but no trace
could be found IL was generally believ-
ed that he had buried Il. but until the
snow melted 10 effort could be made to
find the cache.
On the i4th day Of March. with six
IEshes of snow still on the ground. |
wsnt with uy father into the woods az
Ter a load OF wood We had a yoke OF
lxea and a sled. aud when the first load
was hsaped up my father drove OF with
Il and left ne behind 10 cut down a dead
ash and clear a road around a bit OF a
swamp.
After he was out OF sight ! sat down on
a log TO watch a rabbit hopping about. l
may have spent FIVE minutes watching the
ANIMAL when a slight noise at my right
startled ne and I looked around to ma
old John Parker sitting within ten feet OF
me- He had been described 30 often that
there could be no mistake. II was the
little old man with the stoop shoulders,
the long hair. the seedy garments, the
catskin cap he wore every day in the year
He had dry. hacking cough; he had
bushy gray eyebrows: he had missing
teeth. He sat there and rubbed his skinny
hands together and looked a. the ground
at his feet, and l took In every detail as
clearly as you see this print before You
Was / frightened2 Strangely enough.
was not. Perhaps this was because I had
never seen the old man when living. He
looked go real before me that / never
thought OF spooks or ghosts l simply be-
lieved that his dying had been a mistake
that he had gone away instead OF dying.
was no more in fear of him than Of the
trees about me- | wondered bit how he
could have approached me so closely with
out my having heard him, for the snow
had frosty crust to It. but there he was,
and II was not long before I said to him:
''Did you come out aere to see my
fatherT'
Old John did not look about, though he
continued 10 rub his hands. l repeated
the question in louder voice, but the re-
suit was the same. I looked to see If he
had an AK or gun. bat nothing was in
sight. So far as / could tell he had not
yet seen me. and. feeling a bit embarrass-
ed over the situation. rose up and moved
over to make my presence known. had
started 20 repeat my question, and my
eyes were full on him, when he dissolved
He faded out of my eyes as wet finger
mark fades from school slate, and
found myself looking at a snow-coyered
log. ! locked for his tracks. but there was
none. looked for the spot where he had
sat, but the snow had not been disturbed
in the slightest. l did not have a fit of
the shivers and run away. II was sun
shiny day, and / thought the glare on the
snow had in some way played me trick.
had the tree down and the road cleared
when father returned, and when l told
him of my strange visitor l expected to
be l. ughed at Indeed, l laughed as l told
ii. but father didn't. He began TO ques-
tiOn me very closely, and by the time he
had loaded the sled / could see that he
took the matter seriously. When we were
ready TO go, he asked me to point out the
exact spot where old John had sat This
was easy enough TO know, as my own
tracks were there In the snow. The snow
on the log was piled up and frozen hard,
but father soon cleared il off with the AK.
Then he pounded on the log. found il hQl-
low and cut into il. He had hardly struck
twenty blows when there came a sound to
show that the AK had struck something
beside wood, and five minutes later we
had old Parker's missing gold out of the
hollow log. II was in two tin boxes, and
there were many papers with it to clear
up the mystery of his life and assist the
heirs in settling up the estate. They were
generous to me in settlement, and 1t was
part of the legal records Of the county
that l saw a ghost at o'clock in the aft
ernoon of bright day and recovered the
treasure because of it.