Neighbor Flannigan often stayed with his cronies at the “Corners” a little too long for his own good. One night, being even less himself than usual, he stumbled into the Whittaker place instead of his own. Too stupid to reach the house, he threw himself down on the grass.
As the effect of his evening’s carousing began to wear off, he was startled by the sound of strange music. Seemingly it came from the Whittaker attic.
For awhile he was charmed. What could it be? More and more the mystery of it impressed him. At last frightened by his own ignorant conjectures, he became certain the old house was haunted, and as fast as his shaky legs could carry him he started home on a run.
The following morning he felt it his duty to confide in Uncle Reuben. “I was jest that tired from me day’s woruk I had to rest me legs a spell,—you know how it is yourself, Mr. Whittaker,—when thim unairthly sounds blowed up softly loike, roight out of the chimbly.”
“What in the world could the fellow have heard?” asked Uncle Reuben at breakfast.
“Heard? Why, the whiskey rattling his brain,” replied Aunt Mean. “Don’t look so frightened, Chee. It’s wicked to believe in ghosts, and I don’t want you to get no sech notions in your head.” Perhaps Aunt Mean was giving orders to herself as well as to her niece.
That night Chee scarcely dared play, and it was many a day before her old confidence returned. The full, round tones she loved were stealthily smothered. Fortunately, the house was well back from the road. No neighboring farms were within hearing distance, so her scare was finally forgotten. However, something else happened which caused Chee to leave Daddy Joe’s fiddle in silence a long time. It was Cousin Gertrude’s coming to the farm.
Chee wore her pink gingham the day she came, and even Aunt Mean was dressed up in a white apron.
“She’s the gayest thing, with dancin’ blue eyes, and yellow hair and pink cheeks, ’stead of brown ’uns,” with unnecessary emphasis on the “brown.”
Tears stole down the “brown” ones at this remark by Aunt Mean, who was tightly tying Chee’s braids with bits of shoe-strings. (It was a grief to Chee that Aunt Mean should not allow her to braid her own hair.)