The Lakeland evening telegram. (Lakeland, Fla.) 1911-1922, 1915-08-17
II Pine COTTAGE
1y ANNE MANNING.

Dear Audrey" wrote her cousin.
bora Petty, cant you come and stay
;th mother for q week? want to 90 |
Iennington for q visit and | sim !
S,y will not leave her in that dismal !
house all alone. for Sukey is worse |
han no one at all, with her 'sperret |
ppings' and her firm belief that
Pine Cottage is haunted. Come, like
he angel you are, and bring your !
music SO that you can exercise any
pirits that might be at large. Let me
now when you can come and earn the
ternal gratitude Of your bored-to-
cath Dora.
So Audrey smiled and packed lit
lie trunk, not forgetting her music,
nd took an early train for Quemiss,
he quaint Long island village where
Ter widowed aunt and cousin lived
Pine Cottage was q low, red house
ct back in q grove of gloomy pines
hat struggled out to a little inlet
Mrs. Petty and Dora had tried with.
but success to make the place cheer
ul There was q garden with many
ray flowers, but no matter how many
hines we're sacrificed there was ever
feeling of chill dependency over
harden and cottage.
How can there be shadows where
there are no trees to cast them?"
protested Audrey the next morning as
She walked in the garden with her
hunt. Il don't see any shadows.
Aunt Ella; it is lovely"
Mrs. Petty spread out her palms
with a little helpless gesture.
You have not been here long
Enough, dear" she said gently. You
have not lived with the tradition of
pine Cottage as Dora and have ever
Since Uncle Potiphar died. Time and
again | have wished that he had
never left the place to me, though,
goodness knows, l needed it sadly
enough, for l was penniless at the
time
1T ought to make you a lovely
home, Aunt Ella" said Audrey, her
lovely face warm with sympathy.
Don't you think the idea of the place
being haunted has created shadow
an imaginary shadow"
Perhaps" admitted the elder WON
an moodily. IF anyone could lay our
ghost, Audrey, it should be you with
your sunshiny nature. But you have
never seen the ghost of Pine Cot
tage."
NO, but l should like to-" declared
Audrey. "Ill confess to great and
solemn liking for ghosts of all sorts
Do tell me the story. Dora merely
shivers and turns pale when ash
her about it and you never will say
right out what 1t is that haunts Pint
Cottage .-
Mrs. Petty sat down on stone
bench in the sunniest part Of the gar
den. Audrey dropped down on thu
grass at her aunt's feet and cuppet
her round chin in her palms.
Uncle Potiphar had a great-uncle
Benjamin, who in his youth was I
very studious young man. Instead o
engaging in the pleasures and pas
times of his own age he was Away
sitting in some retired spot with hi
nose in q book. They say that b
was a singularly handsome an
charming young man when he chos
to make himself agreeable, which b
seldom took the trouble to do.
$50 Uncle Benjamin's youth passe
without love and when he was forty
five years old he lived all alone 1
this cottage. Here he studied an
wrote his famous treatises, for n
became q very learned man. but b
never appeared to be quite happy.
Then one day he fell in love fo
the first time. Strange to say, b
chose a young girl of the neighbo
hood, a farmers daughter, who's
tastes were uniformed and who ha
nothing much to recommend her e.
cept a sweet simplicity of nature an
lovely face. The girl was flattere
by the attentions of Doctor Ben, as b
was called, and in time she promise
to marry him. Her parents were d
lighted with the match and Be-
jamin's relatives were glad that I
was to end his solitary mode Of Ii
ing.
Pine Cottage was refurnished fro
top to bottom by the middle-age
lover. whose infatuation for h
sweetheart was remarkable in OF
who had always appeared blind az
deaf to women. It was arranged tn
the wedding was to take place in Il
newly-furnished cottage.
The day before the wedding II
girl, Stella Smith, eloped with
young farmer Of the neighborhot
and was married to him the day al
hour she was to have welded BE
jamin. She left a note for the jilt'
bridegroom, saying that she cou
never marry a man so much OLD
than herself; that she could not 10
him.
That night Benjamin drown
himself in the inlet Before he we
out on that fatal errand he ours
the little cottage which he had pl
pared for his bride and he vowed tn
his spirit should haunt it until t
day when a young girl should 10
an old man and marry him in ri
Cottage. There you have the story
What a sad story. Aunt Ella 50
Audrey soberly But has anyone ev
seen Benjsmin's ghcst?"
Mrs. Petty hesitated.