The Mount Holly news. [volume] (Mount Holly, Burlington Co., N.J.) 1891-1942, 1909-08-31
CUPID AND GHOSTS.
A Vacation In the Country That
Didn't Effect a Cure.
n noMALn ALLEN.


petite was good. What troubled her
father and mother was to find that
Hilda was in love.
John Wayne, her father, was a law
yer of note, and when the lease" was
put into his hands by the mother he
handled it like a lawyer. In this In
stance he constituted himself counsel,
judge and jury, and the verdict was
that Miss Huda was to be packed OF
to the home of maiden aunt in the
country for three months.
The mother doubted, but the father
was confident Hilda had only reach
ed the childish age of nineteen. This
affair was only tr1fie. Aunt Judith
was an old maid and had no sympathy
with such nonsense and would give
the girl sage advice. That conclave.
consisting mostly Of the father, set
tied things in half an hour. There Is
popular complaint about the laws de-
lay, but there are times when 1t moves
very swiftly.
Hilda was not told in so many words
why she was packed of to summer
with the geese and bumblebees and
milk weeds, but she had her suspicious.
She knew nothing whatever Of law.
but she at once set to work to beat
the lawyer. Aunt Judith was grim
and watchfu and unsympathetic and
held Cupid In contempt, and that was
where her case was weak. Within
week of Hilda's arrival, by means Of
the towheaded boy on the next farm,
the girl was receiving and sending let
tiers.
The aunt had figured it out to her
self that her niece would sulk Tor
about four weeks and that she would
have to read her at least dozen lee
lures. She was thus agreeably dis
appointed when Hllda did not sulk.
Out In the orchard. under an apple
tree, rested an old soap box. Twice
week the towheaded boy came skulk-
ing across the fields to leave letters
under that box and take away those
he found there. He was receiving 10
cents letter and he had career be-
fore him. The soap box was not quite
as romantic as silver chest would
have been, but 1t was a fairly safe
postoffice.
By and by letter told that Walter
Allen would have his two weeks vaca-
ton beginning at a certain date and
that certain event might be expected
to happen. This letter was worth an
extra dime to Hilda, and she conscien-
tiously left the same under the box
when she replied She also sang so
often and was so cheerful in and out
of the house that Aunt Judith held
conclave with herself and amusingly
announced TO the audience that wasn't
there:
Il have delivered only three lectures
on the foolishness of calf love and the
duty of children to their parents, but
they have been sufficient to open the
dear girls eyes and make a different
being Of her"
An hour before dark one summer even
ing Hilda was asked If she wanted to
carry a berry pie to poor old woman
living In cottage half a mile down the
road. Hilda did, and she was hum
ming to herself as she set out. 1t was
by this very road that within a day or
two she might expect -. But she
had to carry that berry pie very care
fully and not expect too much.
Between her aunt's home and the old
woman's was a deserted farmhouse
standing close to the highway. Win
dows and doors were gone, the roof
falling in and the yard grown up to
weeds. The towheaded boy could have
told Hilda that it was a haunted house
and that ghosts had been seen troop
| ing In and out
One can't simply hand In berry pie
to a poor old woman and then rush
away. She must be questioned about
her rheumatism and other ailments
and cheered up to live another twenty
years. By the time the good Samaritan
was ready to say goodby it was dark.
She hadn't paid any attention to the
sunset and the gathering clouds. and
she had hardly gone ten rods when a
| big raindrop struck her cheek. She be-
gan to run, but the drops came faster
and faster and by the time she had
reached the deserted house she was
drenched and thought only Of finding
shelter until the worst of the storm
was passed.
Hilda thought of ghosts as soon as
she was under shelter, but, owing to
| the leaks In the roof. she had to move
back until she was against the wall Of
what had once been the large front
room of the house. There she covered
and trembled and shook and wept. If
she was a heroine she didn't know it.
Ten-twenty-thirty minutes passed
and then a ghost walked. Despite the
noise of the downpour, Hilda heard
that ghost pillow its way through the
tangled and sodden weeds before the
door and enter 1t shook itself Ike
wet dog. 1t muttered The water
| from its soaked garments dripped on
the floor. The girl had never divided
the ghost family into wet and dry, but
now she needed no outsiders asSur-
ance that she was in the presence OF
a wet ghost. She was speechless with
terror until she heard the ghost softly
moving In her direction to get away
from the leaks. Then she suddenly
screamed out:
''Are you a ghost?"
mo. Are your came the reply.
''Then who are you%
"And who are your
"Oh. Walter, 1t must be your
1t was not ghost that reached out
a cold, wet hand and found her IN the
darkness. and it was not in ghosty
whispers that they began to talk. wal
ter had left the train at the depot
three miles away TO walk across the
country to the home of the towheaded
bow. where board had already been Sc
cured for him. He had blundered into
this house.
II was an hour after his arrival be-
fore the storm passed away and left
the road almost knee deep In mud and
water. Hand In hand the couple set
out. Sometimes they waded through
puddles, and sometimes it was only
stick mud. Sometimes they fell, and
sometimes the mud about their feet
held them upright until they could
brace up for another struggle.
The hired man was heard hooting
long before the living ghosts reached
the gate and grim Aunt Judith was
found there with a lantern. OF course
she was worried half to death. AS the
bedraggled couple stood before her she
held up the lantern and surveyed
them.
"You went to carry old Mrs. Renfew
a berry pier she finally said.
- LIZ noIllM fH0n