Gloucester County Democrat. (Woodbury, N.J.) 1878-1932, 1908-03-12
By MAUDE LAMBERT

sBut our well is a pumpr' exclaimed
Myrtle so dolorously that even the
mother, intolerant of superstition, had
to laugh
ut doesn't have to be your own
WE'LL" explained old Mrs. Prentiss,
with defiant glance at her daughter
in-law. 1T says that if you look into
a well at midnight on Halloween you
will see reflected in the water the face
of the man you are to marry-if you
are destined to be a bride within the
year.
Nov, mother, stop putting foolish
notions into Myrtle's head, exclaim-
ed Myrtle's mother. "I've tried all
these years to keep such things away
from her, and now you are filing her
mind with arrant nonsense
The grandmother made a gesture of
dissent
eve didn't call it nonsense in our
day, SUSIE" she protested. eve used
to have a lot of fun bobbing for APP
Piles and all that sort of thing. I
guess Myrtle can be good girl, even
if she does bother her pretty head
about the Halloween rites. It's high
time she tried them, anyhow We
can't go back again when we grow up
and find out what we've missed as chill
dren
The younger Mrs. Prentiss shrugged
ba,. sbo,7I1nre, Hon oxx,y Vot1fJ, had
known no such foolish fancies She
had been brought up with Puritan
RICHNESS and sought to mold Myrtle's
mind, even as her own had been form
ed, in the rigid cast of conventionality.
At eighteen Myrtle had never had
any of the childish diversions, and the
advent of her paternal grandmother
with this new lore of Halloween, was
like the visit of fairy godmother. It
was the first time she had seen her ia
theirs mother since, as a child of four,
she had been brought west, and al
ready the kindly old lady had COM
pletely won Myrtle's heart.
The revelation of the Halloween mys-
teries was the most important disclo-
sure yet made, and Myrtle threw her
self with interest into the idea. Her
grandmother lamented that there was
not time to prepare for a Halloween
party, but it was agreed that Myrtle
should prove her fate by the well test
Wells were few, but in the orchard
was welled spring, and this, it was
decided, would answer the purpose.
Myrtle had never had a sweetheart
Sweethearts for very young girls were
frowned upon as being frivolous, and
talk of love had been rigidly discour-
aged. At the time even her mother
could not prevent Seth Haskin from
blushing redly under his tan when he
CHANGED to encounter Myrtle, and,
though he had been refused permits
sion to make the weekly call, which in
that section was the preliminary dec
laration of more serious intention, the
girl was more acutely conscious of his
presence than of the few other men
she met in town or ON her weekly visit
to church.
Her grandmother, born matchmak-
er, had already sensed the situation,
and if Myrtles mother had known that
the old lady had found opportunity to
drop a hint to Seth her passive ac-
quiescence in this friyolity would have
become active opposition. AS it was,
she argued that since Mother Prentiss'
stay was to be short 1t would be posi-
BILE to regain her lost ground after the
old lady should have returned home.
In John Prentiss his mother found
an able ally. He gleefully recalled his
own Halloween celebrations and in
sisted that he could still duck for ap-
pies with the best of them.
'Next year." he shouted, ''well have
regular party, mother. haven't
felt so young in years." He bent again
over the tub to plunge his rudy face
after the elusive apple, and his wife,
grimly regarding the unseemly per-
Torrance, shook her head in disap-
prevail.
But Prentiss was too absorbed in his
fun to notice the head shake, and he
insisted upon trying all the tests he
knew Almost before they knew 1t
the clock struck II and then half past,
and Myrtle, shivering deliciously over
the adventure, stole softly through the
orchard to the bubbling spring.
There was no moon, but stars span
gled the sky, and their light made it
bright enough to see her reflection In
the little pool 0bedient to instruc-
lions, she leaned over the placid sur
face and began to repeat the verse her
grandmother had taught her. Her
heart stood still as she heard the APP
proach of footsteps, but her blood
froze in horror when two men took
their stand on the other side of the
hedge and began to talk of their plans.
1.-THE train will be along in about
thirty minutes" said the first. Il bet
she gets smashed up some this time"
.sBest job / ever did," was the re
Spouse. "Jim's the engineer, and he
A.. :.