Year: 1873

very cold, especially IN the vicinity OF
such house as that. Several urged
Jake to go in first, but he declined, say
| ing that one of the older men, like Colo
mel Free, ought to take the lead. But
the colonel positively declined. A little
man and an old man, such as he, was not
suitable for such a position.


"a big ras'ler, like Isaac Harris, ought
to go ahead, he said


But Isaac declared that sling wasn't
no good with ghost. 'You might as
we'll try to hug smoke" said he


Mrs. Henderson put an end to this dis
| pute by opening the gate, and boldly
marching in, fat-iron and all. She
walked quite steadily up the path, but
she stopped, and involuntarily wet her
finger, and tried her hat-iron. The rest
were dreadfully afraid she was coming
back, but the cold touch of the iron
seemed to restore her to her proper state
of mind, and she walked straight up to
| the kitchen entrance hesitated q mo-
| ment on the broad stone step, and then
| opened the door and went in, closing the
door behind her. The party waited sew
eral minutes in great anxiety, and then,
hearing nothing, Mr. Henderson, the
storekeeper Che it was who was armed
with the the pocket-pistoI, felt it abso-
| lutely incumbent upon him to go in and
see what had become of his wife. So he
walked up the path, stopped on the stone
step and listened at the door, then went
in, and closed the door behind him.


After a short delay, the village wheel
wright, Thompson by name, followed
Henderson, and entered the house.
Then two other men went in, one at
time, each one listening at the door
longer than any who had gone before.


The little party now at the gate soon
became greatly troubled. They could
not ina CINE why their friends should not
make some sign, or come back and tell
them what they had" discovered. Had
they all perished beneath the malignant
power of the ghost? The light certainly
did seem to burn blue. Then Jake Tay
lor plucked up courage, and declared he
would go in; and Colonel Free, who
would not leave him, followed closely at
his heels. After listening awhile, these
two went in and closed the door behind
them.


There was now no one left outside but
Isaac Harris, and Aaron, the colored
shoemaker And Aaron was much more
afraid of Isaac than he was of the ghost,
and very soon followed. the party into
the house.


Isaac was now left to himself, and, as
there was no one there to see him, he
trembled just as much as he wanted to.
In truth he was not only the biggest
man, but the biggest coward of the party.
Above all things, a pasty, ooZy ghost put
him into what he called "cold trickles."
He had all sorts of terrible fancies. Sup
posing there should be two ghosts, he
thought, and one of these hadn't come
home yet, and he should see it come
Sinking through the trees like an old he
lion bringing food to his young. And
then another terrible thought came into
his mind. 1t might be that this ghost
never went into the house at all, but al
ways wandered about outside, and that
these folks, having once got into the
house and discovered this fact, were
afraid to come out again. This idea made
him more chilly and shaky than ever.
What if he SHOULD see both ghosts with
whole family of little ones coming around
some of the bushes towards him He
| forgot entirely or perhaps never knew,
| that such thing as two ghosts haunting
house, much less a family of them, was
altogether unorthodox. Isaac could not
stand this agony OF fears any longer. He
was afraid to go home by himself, and he
was afraid to stay at the gate by himself,
and so he determined to get into the
house as quick as he could. Even if he
was to be scared to death he would like
to share his fate with somebody else.
And so he silently slipped up the path,
his heart qual1ing as he passed each bush
from behind which the ghostly house
hold might jump out upon him. And
then quietly and trembling in every
joint, he slowly opened the door and en-
tered the house.


| This door opened directly into the
kitchen of the mansion, and, standing in
the shadow of great cupboard, near the
entrance, Isaac saw sight which some
what astonished him. There was moth
| ing ghostly about the scene, and that
| perhaps surprised him more than any
| thing else, for his mind was prepared for
| the contemplation of something weird
and dreadful. Opposite to him was a
large open fireplace with wood fire
blazing on the hearth, and an iron pot
suspended from the crane over the
| flames A candle stood on the mantel-
piece, and its light, together with that of
| the fire, dimly illuminated the large
room. In front of the fireplace, some on
chairs and stools, and some on the floor,
sat the party which had left the store.
On one side of the hearth, with her face
half turned towards him, Hannah sat on
low stool. She seemed to be telling a
story to the villagers, who were all listen
ing with great avidity.


! 'Yes," said Hannah, II soon found
that it was hard thing for a woman to
get along when her husband had gone
off and left her And, when / had sold
my furniture, piece by piece, things got
so bad and l had so little work that l
thought l must go somewhere else if l


wanted to make a living And then my
| eyes giving out made it still worse If /
couldn't get coarse work to do, could


do nothing at all. And so / came here,
knowing there was mill here, and there
might be bags to make, and you all know


what hard times l have had since ] first
entered this village. If 1t hadn't been


for this house / wouldn't have had a
place to shelter me. l suppose every


body is alike about these things, but it is
all owing to the ghost that l have even


kept this roof over my head. If he had
left l should have had to have gone too.


He was the best friend l had in the


world, for he gave me house to live in:


But things have been so bad lately that


have even had to give up the ghostr
Here the attention of the company be-
came very marked indeed Was Han


nah a spirit nowP


al expect" Hannah continued, that
shall now have to leave this place, and


where l shall go / am sure don't know.


l suppose somebody will soon want this


house, for there isn't ghost here any
| longer"


The attention of the party grew posi-


lively painful


eyes, you'll never see him again.


had to have something to eat, and he is


now cooking in that potp


n