The Sauk Centre herald. (Sauk Centre, Stearns County, Minn.) 1886-current, 1908-01-23
CHAPTER NJ.

II the porch, overheard the FARMER
II fixing" poor Hen.
4 u There amt no use your set
| tin here waitin. She's went off buggy
ridin with our Abe. Him and hers
wonderful took with each other, AMI
neither of ems got eyes fur no other
Ones.''
II seen Abe's buggy ahead of me
when I was drivin' over here" Hen
answered, his tone expressing timid
doubt Of the truth of Mr.. Morning
stars assertion, land l didn't take
notice to no lady settin' alongside Of
him. He rode clean down the pike
| ahead of me- Our buggies was so
close apart could see right into his II.
| And till got here Already Eunice she
was here"
'She knoWed bettern to git in with
| him near here. She likely walked over
! the schoolhouse and behind Loar's
| church up and then got in his buggy
! above the town out. SOS us we
wouldn't see her
! Very low il his mind and looking
I abiectly disappointed ana discouraged,
| Kenny Oh receiving this information
| rose TO go home.
KinrOss unused on the situation az
| for an hour longer he wandered up
| and down the garden in the gathering
night His promenade brought him
| every now and then TO a corner of
! the house from which he could see in
| an unOccupied and reputedly haunt
! ed part OF the building faint flicker
| ing light in one of the windows.
He had been told of the tradition con-
| corning the ghost who visited this
| wing of the old house The Morning
| stars were very proud of the distinc-
| ton of living with the only ghost of
the township. and strangers to the
| neighbOrhood were never left long in
| ignorance of it. KinroSS felt sure, from
what he had seen of the family, that
none of them could possibly be in
duced to go near that haunted quarter
Of the house after dark and he was
naturally puzzled, therefore, to account
for the light he saw in the window
| just now. He thought he would ask
Mrs. MorningStar to let him sleep in
the haunted room some night and see
| whether he could not meet and lay
the spirit that troubled 1t. 1t did not
occur to him to associate the light with
the absence of Eunice. He accepted.
as unquestioningly as did Hen Muckle-
| benny. Mr. Morningstar's story of her
clandestine drive with Abe. Indeed.
the family's agitation over the fact
was keeping them up long after their
usual early bedtime. as he knew from
the lamp light in the kitchen to which
the circuit of his stroll periodically
brought him.
His impressions Of Eunice were in
dire confusion and refused to lend
themselves to reimbursement. That Il
] girl capable of even accidentally read
ing "The Compleat Angler" and dis
cussing it as she had done should
take up" with-Ab Morningstar was
singular. to say the least. The flower
like beauty Of her face, the peculiarly
i thrilling quality of her voice, her grace
and. in some respects. eXquisteness
made it seem homogeneous that she
should as Mr. MOrningstar had eX-
| pressed it, be wonderful took with
our Abe And then the intelligence
she had revealed this evening-what
was 1t she had said about 1.-The Com
pleat Angler"'-it was not ''for its
didactic instructions about fishing
that she cared for it, but ''for the
anecdotes scattered through it, the
quotations and songs and POEMS"
Good Lord! Should he presently dis
cover that Abe was familiar with
Chaucer and Spenser and that Ollie
Milton? He couldn't have been more
astonished if he had found Mrs. Morn
ingstar quoting Henry James or come
across Mr.. Morningstar intelligently
reading George Meredith. AS psy-
biologist he could not reconcile the
fact Of the girls having left school at
the age Of twelve, according to her
foster mothers own acknowledgment,
with her capacity for aSsimilatin2
IZaak Walton's little classic. He re-
called that Mrs. Morningstar had told
him Of the child's grief at being taken
from school. "She cried wonderful
the woman had said in the unsympa-
thetic tone with which she always
spoke Of the girl
1T would take a Sherlock Holmes
| to ferret out this mystery" he said to
| himself.
AS he came to this conclusion turn
in his walk brought him in sight again
Of the haunted back building, and he
saw that the lighted window had be-
come dark 1.-THE ghost has gone to
roost," he decided.
f.. A moment later as he came around
to the front Of the house the light Of
r. lamp illumined one Of the upstairs
bedroom windows, the room in which,
as he knew, Ollie and Eunice slept
But a moment before he had passed
the kitchen in which he had seen Ollie
and her parents sitting about the table.
Who, then, was in that upstairs room
No member of the Morningstar house
hold would commit the extravaganza
Of leaving a lamp burning in an empty
room. Had the ghost wandered from
the back room to the front one? But
| ghosts did not move by the light Of
kerosene lamps.
Presently in his circuit about the
house he found that the trio in the
| Kitchen had at last taken their lamnS