Los Angeles herald., 1906-05-20

in the nursery, Geof with his sword and re-
volyer, and all Of us with very white faces.
Mana sat with baby Arthur tightly clasped
in her her arms the picture of fright
What shall do" asked Geoffrey. "Shali
we go over the house and see il we can find
"No. Mars Geof," cried Mana, vehemently.
You amt gwine to do no sech thing. / amt
gwIne to let you Fur you can't fight against
ghosts, Use alus heared dis yer house was
hanted, an now Use dead shure of it. What
Is to tell you nanny eff dey kerry you off?
Doan go, honey Take ole Nana's advice.
An besides, de noise amt in de house. It
come from der cellar; Pears like de evil
just then violent conclusion caused us 10
cry out. The noise distinctly came from the
cellar, and. as that could only be entered from
the road, Geof was very. willing to give up the
IDEA of investigating the matter until day
light. Mana was moaning and .muttering
over Arty, who lay quite still frightened al
most out of her wits. Even the children cried
in a subdued manner.
Another and another shock louder and
louder. occurred, and we sat in deadly fear
through the remainder of the night. Toward
morning the noises ceased, and we lay down
on sofas and improyised beds for little sleep.
When daylight had rather restored our cour-
age. Geof discovered that the key of the cell
lar was missing, and Henry, our old colored
servant refused fatty to force the door.
Better wait till Mars. Murray come home,"
ne said, gravely. "Den he kin open de doah
hisself amt gwine bruk open no doah
while de massa done gorne "way from de
house"
So Geof was forced to give it up, and we
waited longingly for the dear ones to come.
We kept close lookout on the main road
and our drive through papa's big spy-giass,
and our hearts beat joyfully when, about
three o'clock, carriage turned into our ave-
nue..
could scarcely keep the little ones from
Y-ftc inv d<1tryY fbar e.
well step out of the carriage, Frank and
Wilfred had clasped his legs, while we almost
smothered dear mamma, in our delight at see.
ing her e! t again o How changed everything, was
and windows, which had been carefully fas-
tened, even in the daytime flew open as If
by magic. Mana beamed and hustled about
in high state of delight.
Papa looked very serious when he heard Of
Billy's disappearance and of our unhappy
night, and at once called for Henry and
Pomp. Closely followed by us all, he repair.
ed to the. cellar-door: AS the key was still
missing, Henry was obliged to force the door.
noise from the extreme end Of the cellar star. s.
tied every one. Henry and Pomp and all Of
us children flew back into the sunlight, with
such hurry that we pushed and hustled and
almost fell over each other.
Papa remained standing where he was. in
spite of old Henry's repeated Mars Muir
ray! Mars Murray! Come out OBJ de place.
You dunno wha' may be dere!" Shading his
eyes with his hand, he, looked steadily into
appeared from our sight. We all cried out.
In a few minutes papa and Henry reap
peared, and there. walking quietly between
them, his horns broken, his coat torn and
quite white with dust, and with generally
detected hang-dog air about him, was our
lost Billy.
''Here, children" said papa, laughing, ''let
me introduce to you your ghost the breaker
noises you heard last night. Billy must have
strayed in here yesterday morning, when the
men were taking the shingles out, and, not
being noticed, was shut up; The noise you
heard was evidently eau; caused by his pulling
find everything in great confusion, even
heavy pieces of furniture upset, and, as you
see. poor Billy has also suffered considerably.