Wheeling Sunday register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1882-1934, 1900-11-11

only about 500 could be found The town
was turned upside. down over the AFFAIR,
! ! and 1t had got into court when we moved
into the village. That was in midwinter
As boy, / could not understand or in
| terest myself in thu legal complications
OF this case, but the fact that old Parker
! had hidden big lot of gold somewhere
| appealed 10 me very strongly The saw
mill and all his houses were searched.
but no trace could be found. 1t was gen.
| orally believed that he had buried 1t,
but until the snow melted no effort could
! be made to find the cache.
| On the 18th day OF March, with six
| inches of snow still on the ground. / went
| with my father into the woods after a
/ load Of wool. We had a yoke of oxen and
| a sled, and when the first load was heaped
up my father drove on with 1t and left me
behind TO cut down dead ash and clear
road around bit of swamp.
| After he was out Of sight | sat down on
| a log TO watch a rabbit hopping about. I
may have spent five minutes watching the
animal when a slight noise at my right
startled me and looked around TO find
| old John Parker sitting within ten feet
| OF me. He had been described so often
| that there could be no mistake 1t was
| the little old man with the stoop should
| ers, the long hair. the seedy garments,
the catskin cap he wore every day in tho
year. He had dry. hacking cough; he
| had hushy gray eyebrows; he had miss
ing teeth. He sat there and rubbed his
| skinny hands together and looked at the
ground at his feet, and took in every de-
| tail as clearly as you see this print be-
| fore you.
Was I frightened9 Strangely enough,
was not. Perhaps this was because
had never seen the old man when living.
He looked so real before me that 1 never
thought of'spooks or ghosts. / 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 I wondered
a bit how he could have approached me
so closely without my having heard him.
for the snow had frosty crust to It, but
there he was and it was not long before
i said TO him:
father"
Old John did not look about though he
| continued to rub his hands l repeated
AeANASfRtA
suit was the same. looked TO see II no
had an ak or gun. but nothing was in
sight. So far as / could tell he. had not
yet seen me, and, feeling a bit embar-
rassed over the situation. / rose up and
moved over to make my presence known.
l had started to repeat my question, and
my eyes We're fun on him, when he dis
solved He faded out of my eyes as a
n Y-ly
| and I found myself looking at "A snow
| covered log. looked for the spot where
he had sat, but the snow had not been
disturbed in the slightest. 1 did not have
| a fit of the shivers and run away. II was
a sunshiny day. and thought the glare
on the snow had in some way played me
| a trick had the tree down and the road
cleared when father returned, and when 7
told him of my strange visitor expected
to be laughed at. Indeed. laughed as I
told it. but father didn't. He began 10
question me very closely. and by the time
| he had loaded the sled could see that no
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 OF with the ak.
I Then he pounded on the log. found II hol-
low and cut into It. He had hardly struck
twenty blows when there came sound 10
show that the ak had struck something
beside wood. and five minutes later we
| had old Parkers missing gold out OF the
hollow log. II was in two tin boxes. and
there were many papers with II TO clear
up the mystery OF his life and assist tho
heirs in settling up the estate. They were
| generous to me in settlement, and II was
I part of the legal records Of the county
| that / saw a ghost at O'Clock in tns
afternoon Of bright day and recovered
| the treasure because OF it.