Windham County reformer. (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1901-1906, 1902-07-04

ibS anu cunning again ~ 10 WI yS"in
/ think they say, since it was seen last
Poor little Rob! 1t has frightened hin
almost out of his wits"
II should think SO, cried with be
coming credulity. "But how came hi
to see it? I thought you said it only
passed at night.
cat midnight" she repeated. "Bu
Rob, you see, is a nervous lad, and nigh
before last he was SO restless he could
not sleep, so he begged to be put in the
window to cool off. This his mother
did, and he sat there for good hall
hour alone, looking out at the moon.
light As his mother is an economical
woman there was no candle lit in the
room, so he got his pleasure out of the
shadows which the great trees made on
the highroad till suddenly-you ought
to hear the little fellow tell it-he felt
body grow stiff with a terror that made
his tongue like lead in his mouth. A
something "a thing he would have
called horse and carriage in the day
time. but which in this light and under
the influence of the mortal terror he
was in took on distorted shape which
made it unlike any team he was accus-
toned to-was going by, not as if being
driven over the earth and stones of the
road, though there was driver in front,
driver with an odd three cornered
hat ON his head and a cloak about his
shoulders, such as he remembered as
having seen hanging in his grandmoth-
er's closet, but as if it floated along
without sound or stir-in fact, specter
team which seemed to find its proper
destination when it turned in Lost Man S
lane and was lost among the shadows of
that i'll reputed road"
"Pshaw," was my spirited comment
as she paused to take her breath and see
how was affected by this grewsome
tale. "A dream of the poor little ladl
He had heard stories of this apparition
and his imagination supplied the rest, y
"No; excuse me, madam, but this is
the very point of the tale. He had been
carefully kept from hearing any such
stories, having enough to do to bear his
own troubles without that. You could
see this was true by the way he told
about it. He hardly believed what he
had seen himself. 1t was not till some
foolish neighbor blurted out, 'Why,
that was the phantom carriage, that
he had any idea he was not relating any
thing but dream.
My second pshaw was no less mark
ed than the first.
"He did know about it, notwithstand-
ing, insisted. "Only he had forgot
ten the fact Sleep supplies US with
these lost memories. We remember then
what may never recur to us in the day
time.
Every true, and you might be right,
Miss Butterworth, if he had been the
only one to see this apparition. But
Widow Jenkins saw it, too, and she is
a woman to be believed"
This was becoming serious.
"Saw it before or saw it after?"
asked. "Does she live on the highway
or somewhere in Lost Man lane?"
''She lives ON the highway about
half mile from the station. She was up
with her sick husband and saw it just
as it was going down the hill. She said
it made no more noise than cloud slip !
ping by. She expects to lose old Rause.
No one could see such thing as that,
she says, and not have some misfortune
follow"
I laid all this up in my mind My
hour of waiting was not likely to prove
wholly Improbable.
"You see, the good woman went on,
With a relish for the marvellous that
stood me in good stead, there is an old
of that road connected with
| carriage. Years ago, before any of US
we're born and the house where you are
vas a gathering place for all the gay
7oung bloods Of the county, young
nan came up from New York to visit
Mr. Knollys do not mean the father
n even the grandfather of the folks you
Ire visiting, ma am. He was great
to Lucetta, and very fine
gentleman if you can trust the pictures
lot to do with him. He had a daughter
It that time, widow of great and
parking attractions, and though she
vas older than the young man | have
mentioned every one thought it would
,e match, she was SO handsome and
UGH an heiress.
But he failed to pay his court to
Ter, and though he was handsome him
elf and made fool of more than one
,irl in the town every one thought he
would 20 as he had come, a free hearted
when suddenly one night
lorse and carriage We're found lacking
rom the stables, and he was found lack
ng too, and, what was worse, the young
widow 5 daughter a chit who was bare
V 10 and without a hundredth part of
he beauty of her mother. Love and an
lopement only could account for this,
or in those days young ladies did not
ide with gentlemen i'll the evening for
leasure, and when it came to the old
entleman' S ears and, what was worse, r
anne to the mothers, there was com
notion in that house the echoes of
which some say have never died out.
'hough the pipers were playing and the
ddles were squeaking in the great
DOM where they used to dance the night
way, Mrs. Knollys, with her white bro
AIDE tucked up about her waist, stood
nth her hand on the great front door,
rafting for the horse upon which she
ras determined to follow him. The IA
her, who was a man of so years, stood
Y her side. He was too old TO ride him.