The Catholic bulletin. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1911-1995, 1918-10-12
The Boys OF The House

OAC Acbu DCCA IOlU tuS AOuSC Woo
haunted, but when she came to it, in
the second year of the war, it did not
seem to her that it's ghosts could be
anything but gentle. The house was
low, brooding, tender old mother of
children. The long corridors, the odd
twists and turns, the little bowery
and 1owery rooms were all delightful.
There was one long low room, with
four windows set deeply in the wall,
which must at one time have been a
nursery. She made the room her own,
When she approached it from outside
she always looked up at the windows
with an expectation of children's
faces and children's brown and golden
heads. looking at her. Perhaps they
were there. She.was too short-sighted
to, see them if they were; or perhaps
she only imagined things.
1t was just the house for children
to play in, with front and back stair.
cases, rooms opening one into another,
deep doors, covered with curtains and
hidden sometimes by an article Of fur
niture, a wardrobe or a bed on the
other side. Her own children de-
lighted in it. 1t was full of hooks
and corners. Outside were spacious
stable yards, with lofts above the sta
bles and granaries approached by a
twisting stone stairs. There was a
lake, famous for it's wild birds, COW
cred with water lilies in summer, with
boat which you might navigate be-
tween the tall reeds. There were the
most enchanting back-waters. Little
splits of land ran between the back
water, and if you were agile you could
spring from one grassy path to anoth-
er, or walk across an unsteady plank,
surprising heron or coot, or flock
of wild ducks, or the moorhen's
chickens; every kind of water fowl
haunted the little lake and the back.
waters, to say nothing of the wild
geese in the wonderful winter skies
and the gulls that came when the
storms were out in the Atlantic.
There were all sorts of delicious
walks in the woods and coppices, and
in spring there were such a plenti-
tude of primroses as she had never
seen anywhere else. If you can
imagine to yourself grassy hill, so
covered with primroses that for a
time there was no sign of grass be-
tween the flowers. The primroses had
run over it like a tide and had run
out as tide will in little tongues,
leaving trail of pale greenish-yellow
foam behind.
Someone said one day: "The prim.
roses must have been planted here
but what a labor! 1t would take the
tirelessness of children to put in all
those roots!"
After that she had a dream of chill
| dren, generation after generation
planting the primroses, bringing them
in from the woods in little wheelbar
rows and "dibbing" them in with toy
trowels.
1t was in the winter following hel
coming that she began to have ar
idea that the house was haunted, but
so sweetly haunted! She heard {
light, young foot across the hall no
ten PAGES from her. When she called
no one answered; there was no ont
there. ~.
Then, in the shadows = the hous,
was full of shadows that winter
down the long corridor or as she wen
up the stairs, something fitted befor
her, a boys shape, light and slender
She caught a glimpse of it, thin a.
mist, against the end window of tn,
corridor. From behind closed doc
she heard boys laugh. Sometime
she heard voices = always youn
voices. When other people hear
them she argued about the acousti
properties of the house and the quee
tricks played by sound, instancing tn
echo. Why, if a child laughed on tn
tennis lawn, or shouted, the hous
gave back the sound from all it's opel
windows, as though other childre
there laughed and shouted, too, in
thin, fairy way.
At first there was only one youn
shape, one light step in the corrido
or crossing the hail. That was be
fore the last day of the old year, whe
she was Weakened from her sleep by
quick, eager voice calling, Mother
mother!" She lay awake in the dus
of dawn wondering if she had onl
dreamed it; but it was not a dream
The call had come to the elder of he
; boys.
Soon the house was very quiet. TIL
younger boy went to prepare to TO
low his brother. The girl went t
school. Bitter cold came and heav
snow. The old house was cut off fror
the world by it's mile-long avenue. TIL
wild duck went away to the sea. Th
gulls became pensioners on the bount
; of the house, robbing the little bird
by force majeure. The crows wer
Observation-Disclosures against the Ill
spotted snow. Everything was star
ing. There was a track made by tn
rabbits to the trees where they at
: the bark. The sheep, dirty on tn
: snow, nosed about piteously, lookin
for bit of grass, and grew lean o
their bare rations of hay. The gull
screamed all day for food and wer
: Joined by others; and, If you lifted
blind at nights, you saw the ghosts {
little rabbits and squirrels runnin