Atlanta semi-weekly journal. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1898-1920, 1902-03-31

being thwarted so raising herself to
sitting posture, she seized the old wo-
mans hands, and fixed her dying eyes
full upon her face.
Aunt Silly" she gasped, 81 am dy-
ing woman-I am very near to God-I
have talked with him and he has answer
ed me. My will has been crushed in life
II swear 1t shall not be in death. Be
fore twenty-four hours Claire Douglass
shall join me in the crystal cavern of Sill
yer Springs. If you do not grant my re-
quest every spirit of evil shall surround
you. Palsied and blind you shall grow,
and deaf-deaf to every sound but the
ghosts of the dead, which shall pursue
you day and night. DO you swear to obey
my dying request-or will you refuse me
and reap the prophecy which shall rest
upon your cowardly head for refusing to
obey Gods will?"
The old woman was shaking like an
aspen. Her eyes protruded with fear, and
great beads of persperation rolled down
her cheeks.
The strength of the dying girls will had
prevailed, and the old woman answered.:
81 promises, honey, 1 promises"
1t was a solemn and awful sight that
night, witnessed alone by God and nature
that boat drifting down Silver Springs
in the moonlight, bearing the two strange
occupants, the one, weird and grotesque;
the other so silent. so white, so pathetic
in its dead loneliness.
Not a leaf was stirring, not a sound
heard, but the plash, plash of the old wo-
mans oars, as her boat with its strange,
beautiful burden, drifted along the water
-drifted until IL reached Boiling Spring,
then veered about and stood still. Gently
and easily as II it had been a baby, the
old woman lifted the little body.
Something of her fear had departed
before the placid smile of the sweet dead
face. Tears rolled down her dusky cheeks,
as she bent forward to carry out the girls
curious request. For a moment the body
rocked to and fro on the water on which
its happiest moments had been spent.
The dead face stil. smiled, an the wealth
of hair CLEANED in the moonlight.
Every pebble was visible in the depth
below. Suddenly the body began sink
ing The boiling of the spring had ceased,
showing the peculiar little fissure in the
rock whence all the strange body of water
comes.
The assure slowly divided. received the
dead body and closed again, shutting
every vestige of it from view.
cord almighty! Dat chiles a angel sho
nuff! She mus done talked to de Lawd
sho, to know how all dat gwine to be,
muttered the old woman as she rowed
back to her cabin in the moonlight.
The day following the death of Bernice
the citizens of Ocala.
Claire Douglass had just returned after
a years absence. He found his beautiful
cousin (whom his father desired TO be-
come his wife) guest at the home of his
parents.
claire" said the father, as they lin
gered over the breakfast table, Il have
new launch at Silver Springs. And 1 wish
you TO take your cousin for "a sail this
morning. And, by the permission of you
young people, shall make one of the par
ty."
'Delightful uncle!' cried the girl.
Claire, while he turned trifie pale at the
thought of returning to the spot where
all that had given color to his life had
transpirea could only acquiesce.
Claire Douglass looked unusually hand
some as the party drifted down Silver
Springs in the April sunshine, but there
was a curious pallor upon his face, and
the uncle and niece were left to carry on
the conversation.
What a contrast the blooming girl in
the April sunshine bore to the one in the
solemn moonlight who had drifted over
the same water the evening before.
AS the launch neared Boiling Spring, the
party noted a little boat lowering over it,
The boat was rowed by Aunt Silly and
its other occupant was an old woman