Year: 1872

followed by the violent shutting of door
and grating of key in lock. We looked
at each other aghast, but before we had
time to utter word, we were again star
tied by different sound--that of children's
cries, and footsteps hurrying along the gal
lery to the room in which we were. The
next moment the door burst open, and in
rushed nurse, bearing baby in her arms,
followed by her assistant, dragging the
three elder children after her-all the latter
pale and terrified, and Freddy in particular
shrieking shrilly.


"What is the matter? What has hap
pened ?" screamed Emma, forgetting her
own recent terror in alarm for her children.


"Oh, master oh, missus !" grasped
nurse, piteously, her eyes rolling white in
their sockets, ga ghost A ghost in the
nursery ~


GA ghost ?"


In the corner closet in the nursery ! l
heerd It'll We all heerd it ! Master Freddy
was looking in that closet to see if there
was any mice in the trap that he'd set, and
somebody in the closet hollered out Who
are your What are you talking about P'
We all heerd it."


Mr.. Walton turned around and once
more looked into the closet. Then taking
the tongs from the hearth, he inserted
them behind the bit of board which have
mentioned as nailed to the WALL and wrench
ed it away, exposing, as he did SO, small
aperture surrounded by metallic ring.


81 have discovered the mystery at lastr'
he said, turning to us with SMILE 1t is
no ghost, but simply speaking-tu
Stay here, and when you hear the spirits,
place your mouth to this and answer them" Z"


He left the room, and in few moments
we again heard the mysterious, sepulchral
voice in the closet, only much more distinct
now, since the board had been removed.


"How are you all ?p


summoned courage to answer: Much
better ~ And then there came low
laugh, ghostly enough certainly, to have
caused our blood to curdle, had we not
been aware of the identity of the apparent
ghost.


And so it was all explained, and the mys-
terry of the haunted closet cleared up
There was as Mr. Walton had said, a speak
ing-tube communicating between the office
room and the distant nursery--placed there
doubtless by the eccentric naturalist DR..
Mather, for his own convenience; and he on
leaving the house, had simply carelessly
boarded over the mouth of the tube, not
dreaming of or Indifferent to the consequen-
ces of this negligence.


The explanation of the various sounds
heard by us in the office-room is very SIM
pie. The corresponding mouth of the tube
was in closet in the nursery, precisely
similar to that in the office. Nurse stored
in this closet the various cups, phials, and
so-forth, used in the nursery, and, to secure
these from the children, the closet was gem
orally kept locked. 1t was the opening and
shutting of this closet door, with the gra-
ting of the key in the rusty lock, that had
so often alarmed me and when it was open
and a search going on among its contents
for some special article, the noise thus
made and the words spoken in the closet
could be heard, more or less distinctly in
the office. Also, when the closet door was
suddenly shut to, it would produce cur
rent of air through the tube sufficient to
slightly open the loosely hung door of the
Office cupboard. Master Freddy's idea of
setting mouse-trap in the closet, baited
with poisoned food, had added much to the
effect of the mystery and it was little Ma
ry's voice which had pleaded SO patheti-
cally for the three victims of her brothers.
experiment, imploring that they might be
buried under the walnut-tree.


Mr.. Walton used to say that it was al
most a pity that the secret of the tube
should have been discovered, and thereby
so capital ghost story spoiled.