The Jennings daily record. [volume] (Jennings, La.) 1900-1903, 1902-05-03
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HoHode, ASb...
- Hall 50
CHAPTER I
ny MARcARET BLovNr.

CHAPTER l.. 49,
Il was wild, raw November after
ooon. The sky was dark and lowering;
the wind swept down from. the hills
with mournful, wailing sound, and be-
meath the tall trees, that bent before
the gale, lay heaps OF faded yellow
leaves, trodden out of all shape and
beauty by the feet that were contin-5
ually traversing the narrow village
paths.
Upon the hills, and out on the broad
highway, the scene was dreary. enough.
But the little village of fBanley, with
it's red-tiled roofs and latticed via
dows, all aglow with the blaze OF fire
light, wore look of cheerful comfort,
which the wintry aspect Of the day
rather heightened than diminished.
Banley. lying far inland, was one of
those primitive little places where the
sound of the railway whistle had never
come. There was branch line, it is
true, some twelve miles away, but few
of its passengers ever found their way
across the hills, and few of the inhab-
itants of Banley had seen the station,
or tested the capabilities of the won
drous iron horse. Those who had
done SO, having returned in safety. be-
came oracles among their neighbors
as people of deep experience. and one
word of theirs outweighed a score
from others, who had not seen the
world
The village, like most Of the kind.
consisted of a struggling street of cot
tageS, with gay fiower-gardens in front
and an enclosure or kitchen, vegeta-
bles and a few fruit trees, at the back.
There was church and parsonage,
it is true, but the vicar was non-resi-
dent, being more deeply interested in
the conversion of Irish Catholics than
in the religious state of English Pro
testants, albeit they were of his own
flock. Consequently the vicarage was
shut up, and consumptive curate
with a sickly wife and family of seven
children, living in a cottage at the up
per end of the village, keeping. up ap'
pearances-by means known only to
curates and their wives on the pitiful
salary of one hundred pounds year.
Anxious and careworn enough the
pair often looked but they loved each
other dearly, and were beloved by ev-
cry one around, so it may be that their
fate was not a hard one, after all.
The curate and his wife, poor
though they might be, were the only
people in the village who could prop
erely be designated "gentlefolks." The
Lord of the Manor was nonresident
the Manor House itself being anything
but desirable home. If all was true
that was told of the sights and sounds
that mad been seen and heard there a,
different times by different people the
poor man was very wise in not coming
to look after his property in person.
Hollow Ash Hall WAS a haunted
house.
1t stood at some distance from the
village, upon a green and fertile emf
hence, shut out from the common ap
proach, though not from common view
by a high stone wall and a lofty pai
of iron gates. There were a porter
lodge, untenanted, of course, and ,
small cottage within the grounds
which had once been occupied by SOM
humble dependent of the family, il
the day when that family was numer
GUS and happy, and strongly united b:
the thousand sweet ties that bind
loving heart to home.
Seen from the public road, the Hal
English mansion, of the ordinary type
comfortably and conveniently built
with stables, green houses, garden
and Conservatives, enough to satisf
all the requirements of modern polit
society The yew trees at the back
and the long. bare lawn in front, CAV
it melancholy appearance; but n
one would have dreamed of calling /
haunted house had they not been toll
that it had an undoubted right to tn
name. There was not even holloN
ash tree in view, to account for its III
disable title. But the villagers, whe
questioned upon the subject, woul
look wise, and lead you to the top O
a narrow. damp lane, where grew
solitary tree, that had been touche
by the scathing finger of the lightnin
OF it's mission of destruction an
death That was Hollow Ash an
that was the Burnt Ash Lane" dow
which lane, as a sort of short cut t
the scene of their uncanny revels,
may be, strange figures were said t
Ait as soon as the clock from the neigh
boring church had tolled the hour c
twelve.
Not only one ghost haunted the plac
there were at least three or four
and their names were more familia
to the persons who owned the mano
than to any curious stranger VIII
sought to pry into it's secrets. But
must have been a bold man or woma
who would have dared to ask We
non q question. They were silen