A GHOST STORY.—PART I.
"I have not a room in the house; but if you don't mind going down to the cottage, and coming up here to your meals, I can take you, and would be glad to," said Mrs. Grant, in answer to my request for board.
"Where is the cottage?" and I looked about me, feeling ready to accept any thing in the way of shelter, after the long, hot journey from Boston to breezy York Harbor.
"Right down there—just a step, you see. It's all in order; and next week it will be full, for many folks prefer it because of the quiet."
At the end of a very steep path, which offered every chance for
accidents of all sorts, from a sprained ankle to a broken neck, stood the cottage—a little white building, with a pretty vine over the door, gay flowers in the garden, and the blue Atlantic rolling up at the foot of the cliff.
"A regular 'Cottage by the Sea.' It will suit me exactly if I can have the upper front room. I don't mind being alone; so have my trunk taken down, please, and I'll get ready for tea," said I, feeling very happy on account of my good luck.
Alas, how little I knew what a night of terror I was to pass in that pretty white cottage!
An hour later, refreshed by my tea and the coolness of the place, I plunged into the pleasures of the season, and accepted two invitations for the evening—one to a, walk on Sunset Hill, the other to a clam-bake on the beach.
The stroll came first, and on the hill-top we met an old gentleman with a spy-glass, who welcomed me with the remark—
"Pretty likely place for a prospect."
After replying to what he said, I asked the old gentleman if he knew any legend or stories about the old houses all around us.
"Yes, many of them," he replied; "and it isn't always the old places that have the most stories about 'em.
"Why, that cottage down yonder isn't more'n fifty years old, and they do say there's been a lot of ghosts seen there, owin' to a man's killin' of himself in the back bed-room."
"What! that house at the end of the lane?" I asked, with sudden interest.
"Just so; nice place, but lonesome and dampish. Ghosts and toadstools are apt to locate in houses of that sort," was his mild reply.
The dampness scared me more than the ghosts, for I had never seen a ghost yet; but I had been haunted by rheumatism, and found it a hard thing to get rid of.
"I've taken a room there, so I'm rather interested in knowing what company I'm to have."
"Taken a room, have you? Well, I dare say you won't be troubled. Some folks have a knack of seeing spirits, and then again some haven't.
"My wife is uncommon powerful that way, but I an't; my sight's dreadful poor for that sort."
There was such a sly look in the starboard eye of the old fellow as he spoke, that I laughed outright, and asked, sociably—
"Has she ever seen the ghosts of the cottage? I think I have rather a knack that way, and I'd like to know what to expect."
"No, her sort is the rapping kind. Down yonder, the only ghost I take much stock in is old Bezee Tucker's. Some folks say they've heard him groaning there nights, and a dripping sound; he bled to death, you know.
"It was kept quiet at the time, and is forgotten now by all but a few old fellows like me. Bezee was always polite to the ladies, so I guess he won't bother you, ma'am;" and the old fellow laughed.
"If he does, I'll let you know;" and with that I left him, for I was called and told that the beach party was anxious for my company.
In the delights of that happy hour, I
forgot the warning of the old gentleman on the hill, for I was about to taste a clam for the first time in my life, and it was a most absorbing moment.
Perched about on the rocks like hungry birds, we sat and watched the happy cooks with breathless interest, as they struggled with frying-pans, fish that refused to brown, steaming sea-weed, and hot ashes.
Little Margie Grant waited upon me so prettily, that I should have been tempted to try a sea porcupine if she had offered it, so charming was her way of saying, "O here's a perfectly lovely one! Do take him by his little black head and eat him quick!"
I indulged without thought, in clams, served hot between two shells, little dreaming what a price I was to pay for that banquet.
Language Lesson—Let pupils use other words to express the meaning of the parts given below in dark type.
"Right down there—just a step, you see."
"Pretty likely place for a prospect."
"The only one I take much stock in."
Write out in full the words for which 'em and an't are used.
LESSON XLVI.
quaked, shook, as with fear.
cha'os, a great number of things without order.
gi gan'tic, of very great size.
stealth'y, very quiet, so as to escape notice.
fa'tal, causing great harm.
mis'sion, what one is sent to do.
in'ter vals, spaces of time.
thrill, feeling, as of pain or pleasure.
af fect'ing, making a show of.
a pol'o gize, express sorrow for an act.
ret ri bu'tion, paying back for one's acts; punishment.