The Argosy — page 332: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

312 Nelly Devitt's Ghost. THE ARCosyY. 2, 1868. did not come again, and the children fell asleep listening to Jenny’s voice. I got up and put them comfortably in their chairs. Then Jenny stopped reading, and began, in a low, frightened voice—“ Aunt Susan, there’s something dreadful in this house: there really is. I never knew I was such a fearful coward as I proved to-night.” I tried to make light of her fears, and she went on to tell me that on going into the room over the kitchen, where we kept the few books we had, she found the door open and the moon shining so brightly into the window that she scarcely needed the lamp she carried. All at once she became aware of some one passing her with a light, quick step, and turning about just as she laid her-hand on the book, she saw the dim outline of a shape pass through the door and down the staircase. She could not be mistaken, she said over and over again ; and she shuddered at her own certainty. I said all I could say, but it seemed very httle when I had done. I told her that we had harmed or wronged no one, and had no need to fear; and then I said learned and wise people had been deceived by their own fears, and might not we? So we went to bed when the time came, if not bravely at least quietly, but neither of us managed to rest much. Jane didn’t make any noise, but I knew by her breathing that she was awake, and somehow there didn’t seem the least use in my trying to sleep. The ciock began to stnke, and stopped ; I thought it must be near morning, but it was only one, and a singular sound commenced in the next room the moment the hour sounded. It was a scraping, pounding sort of noise, as if some one was laying a hearth and scraping away the mortar used, and this kept up incessantly for a time; at length it ceased, and Jane’s frightened voice whispered—‘ Aunt Susan, what was that ?” “IT don’t know,” says I, “but I’ve heard it before, and it never brought us any harm or trouble.” So I had, often in the first week of our being there, discovered such a scratching kind of sound, and called it rats; but this night I did not feel able to control my feelings. I could not reason about it, but just lay still, feeling rather uncomfortable, and saying nothing. I think I must have fallen asleep by-and-by, for the sun was bright and clear when I sprang up, and Jane and the children were dressed and gone down. Somehow I felt that I had no nght to think of myself in the matter, but that if Jenny and the children could be kept from the knowledge of these strange things, I could go on very well. The store proved itself to be a success, for the Hall people patronized me to a wonderful extent ; so did the people on the ‘l'errace, and the - summer cottages in the Grove. If it had not been that we were kept so busy all day, I don’t believe comicloooks (CO) mn _