Year: 1869

muruer oi my Wle! squire, that
can't be. Nancy isn't dead"


Yes, she is-strangled with a cord"


Buckson rose to his feet and, looking
the officer steadily in the face, said slow
ly and solemnly:


esquire, if Nancy's dead don't know
it. | had a quarrel with her the night /
left, and gave her piece of my mind,
but God is my witness that l didn't put
hand upon her /"


The officer looked with some interest
upon man who could thus deny crime
with which he was so clearly linked by
circumstantial evidence, but without fur
ther parley took him from the sloop and
placed him in cell of the station-house.
He made no resistance, and did not
trouble himself to again volunteer any
protestation Of his innocence. While in
the station-house, and during the journey
to Providence, whenever the questions
was directly put to him, he always de-
MED his guilt in the same emphatic terms,
but he was never the first to broach the
subject, and it was especially noticed
that he. never made any inquiry for the
details of the murder.


When the officer and his charge ar
rived at Seakonk, the latter seemed
amazed to find himself the object of uni
versal execration. When he reached the
village and while he walked beside his
captor through the street to the jail, he
was surrounded by hooting mob, that
pelted him with opprobrious epithets,
and with difficulty was restrained from
doing violence to his person. He bore
himself bravely and undismayed through
it all. But his conduct was noted only
to his discredit, and the citizens could
not remember any hardened wretch who
who had ever faunted his crime in the
face of an outraged people.


In due time the grand jury was con-
vened and his case considered. There
was no more doubt of his guilt in that
official body than in the community at
large; and he was formally indicted for
the murder of Nancy Buckson.


When the news was takon to him in
his cell he only said : Goods will be
done!


His perfect resignation had, by this
time, won slightly on the jailor's heart,
and he inquired if he did not wish to en-
gage counsel to defend him at the APP
preaching trial. Buckson's face bright
ened with this first faint sign of sympa-
thy, but he answered:


thank you, friend, but | don't need
lawyer. God knows / am innocent of
this crime and He will prove it in his
own good time


The day appointed for the trial of the
prisoner was close at hand when the qui-
ct village was startled by new terror
One pleasant September morning a ghost
descended from the eastern coach and
walked leisurely, and with everyssem-
blence of life, up the street toward the
long-deserted cottage. 1t was horrible
ghost, for it nodded familiar greetings to
several persons itmet upon the way, and
once tried to pat shrinking child. 1t
almost seemed endowed with human pas
sions for many were ready to make oath
that they saw its cheek flush with anger
when it found the entire town avoiding
it in unconcealed terror. But it was a
persistent ghost, for it walked steadily
on until it reached the gate of the cot
tage-garden, which it found nailed up !;
and it became talkative ghost when it
discovered the pigs running riot in the
garden. In the very voice of the dead
Nancy Buckson, it said in peevish
tone:


That John Buckson'll be the death
of me yet Jast see how he lets these
pesky hogs root up things p


TWAS, indeed, Nancy Buckson herself.


1t is needless to prolong the story. On
the night of the quarrel Captain John
had left, as usual, to take out his sloop,
and Nancy, smarting under the severe
censure he had, for the first time, ex-
pressed, had gone off on foot, during the
night, to a neighboring town, where she
was unknown, and had there taken
coach to begin journey to Maine to
visit sister. Her absence from the
cottage was not known until after the
finding of the body, and its Identification
was SO absolute that of course no search
was made for woman known to be dead.
On the other hand she had heard moth
lug, in a retired spot of distant State,
of her supposed death and the subse-
quent events and her return, timely as
it was, had been purely accidental. She
was Mortified when confronted with the
results of her thoughtless freak, and, al
though she made no noisy demonstrations
of regret. and was not profiIse in nrom-