The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1904-01-31
What the Children Were Afraid Of
Unreasonable
Some

did himself. to the ghost stories he had
heard as a child. That the superstition was
In the blood as well as in the training and
that her children could suffer from IL with
out ever hearing a ghost story, never oc-
CURED to her. Servant girls and school
mates, moreover. had left them less ignorant
OF ghostlore than she fanced. Still less
dld the possibility enter her head that they
might possess a power OF detecting the un-
canny and the horrible, where she could
perceive nothing whatever. She cheerfully
assigned the little girl a charming. sunny
south room, separated by the whole length
OF the big house from her own, and never
dreamed that she could be afraid
Now what the little girl knew was that
there dwelt on the cupola stairs. and in the
low garnet, a horrible, maglnant, invisible
Thing-not ghost of any person. but the
ghost of some hideous deed. Although the
thing did net live there, the deed from
which IL sprang was connected with the
front bedroom-her mothers room. In the
night, whenever everyone but the Thing
and the little girl were asleep, IL would
leave it's haunt on the cupola stairs. come
down the circling sweep Of the grand stair
its stairs, and pass through the long back
hall TO the child's door Happily il could
not pass through the locked door. but IL
waiting, waiting for the chance OF an open
door Mother used 10 wonder why the child
did not want that door open on hot nights.
strange TO say, the childs health ana
spirits were bad during the two years the
family lived in the Lawton house, and
neither tOnics nor exercise. nor keeping her
out OF school seemed 10 do her any good.
II was not until she grown that she
could find courage TO speak Of the Thing.
The thought OF which still filled her with
shuddering horror. Two things seem TO
of Imagination. One is that she said: II
do not understand, mother. why il was con-
nected with only the front part Of your
rOom-the back third Of il was quite free
from it,
The back third had not always belonged
fully; there used 10 be three rooms over
the north parlors instead of two-Mrs Law
ton told me so; and besides. when the car
pets were up you could see where the old
partitions ran"
The other is that she said TO her brother
three years younger: "Wil. was there any
thing In Mrs. Lawton's house that you were
afraid OFF,
You bet there was"
What was it. and where did II stay?'
Whereupon he described. in his pictur-
esque, boyish phraseolOgy. the same dread
Thing in the same locaiities-yet neither
OF them had ever mentioned IL 10 the other
before. He had suffered less than his sis
ter. because he had not slept alone
Brother and sister and n younger brother
who had been a mere baby in the Iawton
house, were also aware later OF a somewhat
similar, though less powerful and ter
rible Thing that stayed. not I'm the house
where they were living then. but just out
side or IT, by the corner OF the house near
the steps leading up 10 the back porch That
explained the mad rush with which they al
ways came around that corner and up those
steps when IL was necessary 10 send them
10 the woodshed after dark and also eN-
planned why so much coal and wood had
been spilled on those steps. The three chill
dren had all felt for years the same per-
ception OF something waiting at that par
ticular corner 10 catch them. though none
OF them had ever spoken OF IL TIN the eldest
had persuaded them into talking IL out. In
the back yard itself. much more lonely and
remote. they felt no such fear.
So IL is well for parents TO remember that
children may have other invisible compAn-
ions than dear little playmates. and &c be
careful about sending them 20 spots
toward which they manifest an inexplicatls
reluctance