Greene County herald. (Leakesville, Miss.) 1898-current, 1903-10-30

LIE. Before Tom began 10 Spen0 MS
evenings In the kitchen Christine had
been the most considerable of nurses.
When she tucked the bedclothes about
her small charge at night, and sat be-
her talk had been all OF fairies, and
hawthorn hedges, and the green Eng
lish fields In which she had played as a
child; but when Tom began to wait for
her below stairs-to wait In the COM
pany Of Ellen, the jolly cook, and Mag
gle the blue-eyed housemaid, Christine
had grown cross and impatient. She
updressed the little girl almost roughly
and even hurried her through her
prayers. When she tucked her in bed
she refused to sit beside her; and in
answer to the child's half-suppressed
sob she paused in the act of turning
out the a to bend close above the
small pillow and the suddenly widened
eyes that stared at her in the dimmed
light. Her voice itself was a threat
as she opened the door in the child's
soul by which Fear might enter in. 4
"As long as you are good nothing
will hurt you," she concluded, more
kindly. BE quiet and don't tell and
you're all right" She turned the gas
quite out, and closed the door, leaving
Fear to watch in her place by the bed.
Not that the child called it Fear;
she knew no anne for the vague, form
less thing. But its formlessness was
an added terror, which was heightened
by the fact that to her strained mag
nation an audible football came from
that void which was its presence, while
above its awful shapelessness she felt,
though she never saw-a face. Beast,
monster, devil-whether one or all of
these she could not say; and only
because a thing spoken of must be
designated by a word could one call
the dark impersonal presence 1t.
Every night after this It came, a
terrible black emptiness moving with
slow, steady steps to the child's bed.
The steps fell first in the long hall,
when Christine turned out the nursery
gas. AS she went out she moved noise
lessly over the thick carpet toward the
door which led to the back hall, and
the progress Of her retreat vas known
to the child only by the sound OF the
others stealthy APPROACH sound dis
tincty heard above the heavy beating
of her own heart. 1t moved a step
nearer for every step that Christine
moved away; when she stood at the
door of the back hall 1t stood at the
nursery door, always; when she open
cd the door-softly, lest it should be
" down stairs that she had left
the nursery before sleep came u a,s
small inmate-It entered; and when
Christine closed the door behind her 1t
sprang with a great leap to the child's
bedside. and hung over her in the dark,
moving and gliding, with an awful
threat behind its senseless leer. She
could never Q the face nor the leer;
IL she could have done that she might
have borne it: she only felt them
through the shuddering dark.
And 1t was not alone; the tiger I'M
AVA kAO GOQ DCAO46C0 " IL, d11Q lAt ape
In the closet, and the man with the
black mask and the sword. These also
were s enemies, but she knew all
about them; Christinat had told her,
not only on that first dreadful night,
but often since. They were friends of
Christmas in some mysterious way,
and SO long as the child obeyed her
they were not to be feared; but If she
ever cried or called her mother, or
told any one that Christine did not
stay with her until she was asleep
then they would spring at her in the
dark and tear her limb from limb. If
she obeyed she was safe; Christine
said so, and Christine never told lies;
she said she lev did; and, besides,
she would be afraid to tell lies, be-
cause liars were put in the fire and
burned up. Her brother told her that
the day she promised to let him play
with her best doll In his own way, and
then snatched her away and ran to
Christine with her. She was a liar:
she shivered as she thought Of the lake
Of fire. But he was digging Miss
Homer's eyes out of her head-her
beautiful eyes-to see why they didn't
shut faster. God would burn her up:
but 1t wasn't fair when other people
made you tell lies; perhaps God did
something to them. too. But He would
not do anything to Christine; she was
always good. That was why the tiger
loved her. and the man, and the ape;
they hated bad people-oh, did they
know she was a liar? She shrank fur
Their down under the b~edclothes. Chris
tine said they wouldn't hurt her If she
kept still; but Christine didn't know
about 1t. It would not mind Christine:
1t would not mind anybody; and 1t
was the tigers friend, tool She dared
not open her eyes. but she knew that
In the dark It was bending down, and
that the tiger had crawled t o the edge
OF the bed to lick It's hand. The ape
peered out of the closet grinning a
welcome to 1t, and the man. in the
mask stood just behind. They were
all It's friends, and It hated her. But
1t was so dark; perhaps they could not
see her-though she knew in the
depths of her covering little soul that
they did. Perhaps she could spring
out Of bed on the other side, and reach
the hall door before 1t or the tiger
could catch her. But the closeti she
would have to pass that. She felt the
apes skinny fingers, and the mans
sword at her throat. 1t bent closer
over the bed; did 1t know what she
had been about to do?
Time dragged by. The door-bell
rang. and company came in. Laughter
hoated up the stairs, and 1t grinned
hideously at the thought of the COM
pany In the nursery. Once her moth
or sang, and that comforted her. Ages
afterward her mother came upstairs.
The man and the ape drew back into
the depths Of the closet; the tiger
crawled to the exact middle OF the