Year: 1872

Highland Hall was the somewhat
lofty name of Madam Garlan's select
schoOl-a school which, madam boasted
to her intimate friends, was made up
exclusively Of the daughters of the
"first families" of the neighboring
towns, while the 'first families" them
selves congratulated each other on the
high standing of the school, and re-
garded Madam Garlan as eminently
fitted to have the charge of such an in
stitutiOn. Madam was a woman of
calm and stately presence, and she
prided herself on having impaired
somewhat of her own calm stateliness
to the school. The whole establish
ment was like well-regulated time
piece, all the arrangements moving on
with the utmost precision, for madam
loved quiet and order, and thus far had
succeeded in maintaining both. But
one day, or rather one'night, something
happened which threatened to disturb
the long established quiet. Madam
Garlan was in her parlor, in dignified
conference with Miss Caruthers, her as
sistant, when little Lou Clyde burst into
the room, her blue eyes staring like an
owls, and declared that she had seen
ghost.


"The child is out of her head" said
madam, who held in high-bred con-
tempt everything bordering on vulgar
superstition, but Miss Caruthers put her
arm about Lou, and asked gravely
whether it had horns. Lou tried to
smile at that, but the poor little frame
was shaking with fright. and it was ten
minutes at the least before she grew
calm enough to tell the terrible tale.
She had left book on the library table
and had gone in the dark to get it, but
on opening the door found bright
light shining, which, however, imme-
diately vanished, and at the same in
slant tall, slim figure glided away
whittier, Lou could not tell, but certain
ly not through the door.


"What did you eat for supper, dear?"
asked Miss Caruthers, sure that the
ghost was the creation of n disordered
digestion.


"Just what eat every night" said
honest Lou, "stewed prunes and bread
and butter.


But Madam Garlan was Mortified. 1t
would never do to let it "get out" nor
even to have the servants hear it, and
little Lou, severely reprimanded and
forbidden to repeat the story, was sent
off to bed, feeling that to see ghost
was to commit an objectionable crime.
Madam, confident that the child's "vis-
ion" was simply trick of the imagina-
ton, would not risk rousing the curios-
ity of the school by investigating the
matter, and when week went by with
no more tidings of the ghost, she set
tied her ruffied plumage, and congrat-
ulated herself on the wisdom of her
course. But one morning, on going
into the school-room, she found the at
mosphere charged with some disturbing
force. Heads that should have been
bending studiously over the textbooks
were grouped suspiciously together
and cabalistic signals were flashing
from desk to desk. What it was all
about, it was not easy to divine; but
little Lou Clyde, excited and triumphant
could not long conceal the fact that the
same strange light and shadowy form
been had seen by one of the elder girls
Then madam resolved at once to sift the
matter to the bottom. Suspecting that
the whole affair was nothing more OF
less than piece Of schoolgirls "fun,' ,
and that most of them were In the Sc.
cret, she called each to her room in turn
determined to bring the guilty ones tc
a confession, but their frightened faces
soon convinced her that they were al


alike innocent, and she was compelled
to content herself with enjoining upor
them that If the light were again seer


in the library it should be at once re.
!, ported to her, and that no one was t.


enter the room until she was present


Meanwhile the ghost herself, fair-hairet
Christine Rhetz, had been going quietl.
about her work, never for momen