Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1913-09-09
The Daily Story
sILAs FINDLEBURYs GHosT-BY REBEcoA STEVENS.
Copyrighted by

began to get supper. There's more
things in heaven and earth than-Ive
forgotten the rest-but l guess it means
there's more queer happenings than we
poor mortals can explain"
After supper she went out TO feed
the chickens. On her way back she
looked up at the roof of the old house.
The two wide mouthed chimneys need
ed repainting. and if Silas had been
alive she knew that he would have
painted the bricks fresh red, with
neat white stripes outlining the NOR
tar. A big locust tree overhung the
house and traied dropping branches
along the ridgepole.
That limb needs hoping off," sighed
Betsey as she went indoors.
At 10 o'clock that night Betsey Fin
dlebury awoke suddenly and sat up In
bed.
What was that sound? She listened
intently. 1t was n gentle patterins
overhead and occasionally a heavy
creaking sound.
Betsey Findlebury slipped from her
bed and went TO the garnet stairs.
Again she hardened. Now the sounds
were palmer. and they appeared 10
| come from the roof.
/ What could it be? She shifted the
| air.
| In five minutes Betsey had dressed
herself in the dark and noiselessly
! gone down stairs. The front door
! opened and closed. and Betsey tiptoed
out to the porch, down the steps and
on to the grass of the front yard.
When she had reached the shadow OF
tall shrub she peered up at the roof
! Of her house, and her nervous fingers
clutched her throat.
Silhouetted against the midnight sky,
in the radiance or the full moon. was
a mans tall, white clad form. Betsey
saw him stepping carefully to and fro
bending now and then. His arm went
back and forth, back and forth, and,
although the shrill chorus of the katy
dds drowned any sounds he might
have made, Betsey imagined she could
hear the pat-pat-pat of a paint brush
passing over the bricks of the shabby
chimney.
Betsey stole into the house and
, went to the kitchen, where, with
shades carefully drawn, she lighted
the oil stove and put coffee on to boil,
. Then she stepped from pantry to table
until she had a tablecloth laid and
, places set for two. When everything
, was In readiness she went out into the
front yard and looked up at the roof.
The midnight painter was quietly
1t. It'd In ,1oI,A
3 I of the locust. BY the time he had
. slipped down to the ground beside the
| back porch Betsey had flung wide the
, kitchen door and was saying in a
CHEEKY voice that she tried to hold
steady:
q Hurry up, Silas. Your breakfast is
waiting for you. Seems to me you've
been powerful long while over them
chimneys"
/. For an instant there was silence,
S Then the tall form, clothed in painters
:. overalls, stepped forward on to the
0 porch
Sias Findebury appeared worn and
;, haggard and very tired. His eyes look
u ed anxiously at Betsey's face, beautiful
with its tender. tremulous smile.
/ "Betsey, Betsey, do you want me!'
he whispered brokenly.
!. "Silas Findlebury. you'll ketch your
death a-standing out there! scolded
Betsey, and so, drawing her lost hus.
band within the house, Betsey Findle.
. bury once and forever laid his ghost.
Over that midnight meal Silas Fin
:. dleDury told how he had gone fishing
u l,nE hpHrr ha win nd
;, tide had carried him off shore and into
the path of sound steamer and how a
y deck hand had flung him a rope and
y pulled him aboard.
:. He told Of their arrival in New York
y and Of his sudden inspiration to spec.
ulate with the S51s contained In his
= pocket. If he could return home with
q double that amount Of money they
y could pay off the mortgage and build
= the new barn as well.
. Silas speculated and lost Then hs
h went TO Milton, where his brother
d lived, and obtained work there in one
q of the mills. little by little he was
* saving money, trying to make up the
sum he had lost. At different times hi
n had walked the ten miles to Little Riv
& er 10 90 something on MS own farm
e to help Betsey, to catch glimpse o.
d her sitting beside her lonely lamp. To
V night he had come to paint the chin
neys. They had worried him. he said
., Here Betsey's arms around him stop
a ped his narrative.
# 1t mattered not that he had saved
( only paltry S25 of the needed
amount; it mattered nothing to Betse,
y that 1t would take two more years o
II saving to acquire another amount SUI
n ficlent to pay off the mortgage. silai
% had come home, they were together
lie and his ghost would walk no more.
{ And Betsey was SO happy that sh
h gave the glad news to Finney Lloyd
wife so that Ida could have the pleas
ie ure OF spreading the tidings from on
70 end of Little River to the other.
"a Sept. 9 in American