The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1912-06-27
s7717 tcspyrsshtal 1911 hS Harper . Bre&l

living soul, excsp MAudie Joyce dh 1ts all overs
 "Is it wicked v F inquired. 1s .. .. rs. It $ ;" sad Mabel Blossom.
 ssIfs this said Mabel Blossom, with terrible cooi- ness 'Kiftie James, aud Mabel Murie1 Murphy and Janet Trelawney and Adeline Ihurston and are go- ing to the ruined church on Halloween, at midnight When get there we're going to ask the spirits the names of our future husbandsr s.s .n esp1sss;on a oa dsapprovai @ over ny I eatares m ! aYou inov perfectly well Mabel lBlossom'" said the rules Besides. there's no way of getting out at midnight The doofs all locked, and the portress
 Mabel knew this, but the reader doesn't. So have keys ao Mabel I just said she couldnt do it She Mabei looked stubbofn. She thousht she vas look ing firm. but have to tell what the effect really She made her lips into little straight streak across her face, and dragged her eyebrows oyer her nose sI wish could do 1t. Then she said: < z S. ,
 1T told you t vas wicked That's where the wick ~ fhses % usasliy where Mabels wiekedaes. comes in
 breaking the rules She waited minute; then she
 wei. are you coming. or aren't you7"
 [ kspt on hesitatinS. You can see how terrifying the dea was but you can't imagine an the horror of was little country church about s mile from the convent snd t had been built age: and ages agoas crsted snd nsed for 1t was found that te ground was unhalloNed and there were all sorts of thrilling stories about It. used to take girls there at tss@ snd vstsE their shadder;ns. @ One legend wss 1ost souls had claimed the church and held :rsss vas . little ,s.s sha.sKaEd R srosd and the old cellar had become big, bottomiess hole There was a cracked bell little sfeeple and it soast ioiks ssids the devl was 1insins t to call his own around Ehim.
 % r,s ssg gs vi was,s ss Msss s & assss .st @ shire husband. The thouglt made by blood sing in
 and the sSIss Of Ey fse{ 4over, and remembering the awful things had heard, sMabei Blossom was watching me and smiling cool sseT s5 ss os ,y sss .sS sGSt ug vodp bs it we don't die.' You tnow how t makes you feelthat you've got to F yded Then rs put p oa1 1T heads tosssher M and made say as real writers put it, we arranged everythins When we came up asanst problem Mabel Blossoms Il was mine M.bsl asked me to tell Msudie Joyce and get her to coma with did She came There are eoldsn . ;nstanis when Mandie forsas about her
 The night of Halloween fell Don't you think that at nine 6;sloek as usual We had to We sot in with final rounds just before the Great Silence Then the sot hickes and biseker. and the sorrows Of ny past life came and sat on my bed in roNs the way they do and conscience gnawed on the thought of what we were going to do like mouse gnawing hole in < the floor. could almost hear it.
 We had 10 wait till ten, and the only way could tel when ten came to listen till distant clock s struck can most always hear it strike but this night thought it never would was sure it would strike five six. if it struck anything again but got up and crept out of the room like wrath. Every girl at St. Katharine's has room 10 herself, but the rooms are small and close together both listening for sounds Sometimes when woke at night threw shoe sf the walL-but you'd better believe didn't tonight hardly dared to breathe. and I sy 0. M m sn a5 : o ny dsSs and wait till the echoes died away and then turn some more.
 The hall was like long black tunnel with slip pery bottom but slid along it in my stocking feet, holding my shoes in my hand. I was afraid I'd step on pin, but there weren't any-fancy Sister Har- pride of her Hfet Then I thought of mice and the thought go terrible that stuck nlind on the it. Even Mabel Blossom says so. ing on bsleony at the far end of the east hall, Maudie Joyce Maudie's conscience had been gnaw- ing too, but not enough to keep her from She
 o be great eoniort to our dear companions Kit distinctly heard Mabel Blossom draw deep sursiing
 
 to lead that group out of the second-oor window and down the side of the balcony through the ivy, the convent grounds, and whole mile in the dark to haunted church There limits any dauntlessness.
 Now that we were there though. Mabel led the way, cereless manner, if she had to all along, and we followed her. We got down safely, but Pm of Mother Ernesta's pet ivy on that wall $ won't cling much any more. Kittie James fell when she was about feet from the ground and of course she started to shriek, but Maudie had presence of
 mind and caught her by the throat before much of the shriek got out We counted noses, and when knew we together, with loved lost in the ivy, started for the ruin
 will now stop and describe the scene though know the reader s in suspense. It just the kind of night for Hsllowe'en-"when churchyards yawn and graves give up their dead" The sky was covered with moving clouds cold wind blew. across the fields and there was tiny little piece of moon that looked like Maude Joyce's curved pearl pin It kept peeping in and out among the clouds. When we es- pecia1y needed light stayed behind them; but when there was something grim and grisly ahead of us, that moon came out and made it look worse. year