The Celina Democrat. (Celina, O. [Ohio]) 1895-1921, 1911-02-10

they seated themselves in a circle
around the food and proceeded to make
merry in the long silent halls.
When the last nut had been cracked
there fell over the group so oddly as
sembled, a silence. Then, some one
asked for a story--a ghost story.
I'm tell you one" said a girl, the
voice of whom few of the young people
recognized. That II belonged to none
of the members of the club they were
certain; but there were several guests
present at the gathering.
Adjusting her pillow case the more
easily to speak, the strange voice went
on:
This is a true story-though
ghost story to some" she said.
when my mother was an infant, her
parents died and left her entirely alone
in the world; but some kindly people,
having known her parents, took her
into the house and treated her like a
member of their own family As she
grew up she learned to love them, but
she had been told that she was an
orphan, and that It had been the pleas
ure of these friends to adopt her. The
man and his two sisters-it was not a
man and wife who had taken her into
their home-were growing old when
my mother fell in love with young
man who lived in the town.
The old people never married them.
selves, and they always discouraged
any such idea my mother might put
forth She did not want to hurt them
they had grown very old by the
time she was $3.50 she said nothing
to them of the man she loved and
who loved her In return. Night after
night she climbed out of her little
bedroom window after the old people
had gone to bed, and met her lover.
Then, in an hour or two, she climbed
back, and the good old people never
knew she had been gone.
My mother knew it was deceitful.
but she knew, too, that the views of
life that these old people had tried to
instill into her were not altogether the
accepted ones, and she loved the young
man very dearly. She thought it would
do the old people more harm to know
this than it would do her harm to de-
ceive them, and she chose the latter
evil
I'm time, her adopted relatives died
and my mother was left all alone in
the world again. She had led a quiet
life, for there never had been gaity
in the house. The night the last sis
ter died her lover begged her to run
away and marry him. He explained
that she was alone and that he was
anxious to go to a foreign land and
engage in a business he had long
wanted to enter. Would she go with
him?
Broken with grief and with the
prospect Of losing her lover if she did
not go with him, my mother that night !
climbed from the window and mar
ried her lover. Before she left the town |
she made all arrangements to cover
her escape, and she was never heard |
Of again in the little town. The Tela- |
tives, so she heard later, believed she |
had been stolen, and when the old |
house was closed after the burial Of |
the aged sister she was mourned as
dead with the others. My mother loved |
romance and she gilded this story with |
it as she told it to me as little
girl"
The young woman paused, and there
was silence, while the chestnuts
dropped now and then on the porch
without The candles in the jack
olanterns were growing short
Go on" urged the little circle.
Well" she began, here l ami,
Hope Stanislaw Strange-back in the
very house from which my mother es-
capped to be married."
CALCULATIONS of wonderment came
from all sides.
Let me finish," said the girl hold
ing up the weird white arm beneath
the sheet. 81 did not know when l ac-
cepted Claire's invitation to visit her
that 1t was the former home of my
mother and father met Claire at
NciASoS ANC Oell . G5OI anu VIC nave |
been friends ever since. After my
after | lost mother and father-I came
to the States and educated myself with
what money they had left me, and now
am successful business woman in a
big city. This is my vacation, and it
is as strange to me as it is to you that
should have come to this very town,
the very home from which my mother
mystery to everyone.
knew when first heard of the party
tonight and was told of the haunted
house and its history that-that it had
been my mothers own story"
When the little party broke up and
The pillow-cases had been lifted from
the heads, John Sloan looked at the
girl who had told the real ghost
story.
And your mother was the ghost
Helen's Aunt Mary Ann saw2" he
asked
He had become strangely impress
cd with the sweetness of the girls
voice.
She nodded.
And, under your own business-like
exterior, have you not, perhaps,
race of the romance that was in your
81 might have" she laughed.
And to himself John Sloan vowed,
hen and there, to find out
He did find out. Before Hope
Strange returned to the city she had
the young lawyer to forsake
business and marry him. She also
that she would live in the