Shiner gazette. [volume] (Shiner, Tex.) 1893-current, 1909-02-25
The Ghost Of Lemon Lane
BY Mrs. May Agnes Fleming.

"How uncommonly good looking
she u.s. thought the elderly squire,
getting a little fluttered under this
masked battery of brilliant smiles;
II wish she would put up her veil
and let's have a better look at her.
I'm very glad the cottage is going
to be rented, and remarkably glad
we're going to have such a real
nice tennant She'll be company to
Nelly, too-keep her from moping
her added wits OUT among the trees
and flowers.2
Side by side, Squire Lemon and
his fair tenant sauntered down the
leafy lane that led from the house
to the cottage. Mrs. Seaton talked
vivaciously, and in a way that
showed her heart had not been alto
gether broken by the decease of the
late Mr.. Seaton.
Eleanor Lemon, sitting among
pansies and daisies under the waving
willows, idling over Tennyson, look
ed up in some surprise at her father
and the stately lady in widows
weeds. Mrs. Seaton glanced her
bright eyes that way too.
your daughter, / presume, Squire
Lemon? heard you had an only
daughter. Such a very, very pretty
girl She's exceedingly like you"
What delightful woman this
is thought the squire. Pom my
word, it's pleasure to hear her
,talk!"
HAS she been ill?" the widow
said, "she looks sadly pale"
well, ma'am," said Squire Lem
on, in an outburst of confidence,
"I'll tell you how it is. She's been
and set her heart on some chap down
to Boston--a dry goods clerk with
out money in his pocket, or, l sup
pose brains in his head-one George
Lyon, If you ever heard the name.
let her go last Christmas to spend
the holidays with her aunt, and
what does she do but come back en-
gagged. But 1 IL take the nonsense
out of her. She's kinder pining, you
these cases, and she's took to poet
ry and turning pale. By-and-by
Mrs. Seaton, I'll get you to talk to
her and reason her out of her non
sense. Here's the house, ma am
walk right in"
The squire and the widow explor-
ed the house, and the widow was
delighted.
III have piano IN that corner,
she said, and this shall be my
sleeping room. / won't have a ser.
want for two reasonable first,
prefer to do my own work; the sec.
ond. no one would live in the haunt.
ed house. I'll move in this very
ievening."
Mrs. Seaton was woman of de-
lightful energy and promptitude. Be
fore the sun had set. everything
needful was disposed within the cot
tage, and Mrs. Seaton herself came
with the dusk. And all Lemonvillt
knew that the haunted house had 6
tenant and great was the wondering
thereat.
Early next forenoon, the squire
called politely upon the new tenant
He entered the parlor, where a de
licious half-light reigned where 6
a piano stood, and flowers bloomed
and where the widow, still in trailing
sables and jet ornaments, received
him. She was handsome, very hand
some, in large and grand sort Of
a way and was not an inch under
five feet ten-Squire Lemons stlye
precisely.
81 always did like your big and
buxom and bouncing sort of wo.
man." thought the squire, sitting
complacently under the light Of
sparkling eyes and sunny smile
'and l always shall. If | ever mar.
ry again., surveying the magnifi.
cent Cleopatra before him, Il should
like woman like this Mrs. Seaton
Mrs. Seaton might have been g
witch, so artfully did she while
away the time. She talked to the
squire, she played for him, she sang
for him, she laughed and TESTED, and
derided the ghost, and made her
self altogether so bewitching that
the squire found that it was one
o'clock and his dinner time before
he thought half an hour was gone
Come again." Mrs. Seaton said
as he rose to go, cit would be q
charity to my loneliness, And send
your pretty, pale daughter, please.
The squire Went home all in de-
lightful tinele ard glow. On the
way he met his pale, pensive Flea
nor.
Nelly" he said, with unusual
gentleness, you look dull child. &C
and call on Mrs. Seaton at the cot
tage. She's a delightful person, and
will cheer you up directly"
Eyes, papa" Eleanor said, list
lessly. She didn't care much for
Mrs. Seaton, and she rahter prefer
red moping~ herself to death, since
she was never more to see her dar-
ling George; but her aimless feet
turned of themselves down the lane
in the direction of the cottage. The
tall, handsome widow stood in the
vine wreathed doorway, among the
climbing roses, like picture in a
frame.
''Nelly" she said.
! Eleanor Lemon gave cry-one