[The Queer Side of Things.]
THE MASTER OF GRANGE.
There was a rushing, whirling agitation in the air—the dust rose from every ledge and revolved wildly as a something passed down the intricacies of the old back staircase—passed too rapidly for recognition. It was the page, pale and breathless, hurling himself from the top floor toward the servants' hall.
"There's that ghost agen!" he gasped. "It's up there a-furridgin among the lumber in the loft! It is—I 'eard it myself, I tell yer! Yer may say 'pooh' if yer like. Yer'd better go an' see!"
The housekeeper, being the bravest of those who heard, went up to see. There certainly were unusual sounds in the vast and lonely lofts under the roof. Cautiously she peeped in; and there was the Squire with a candle ferreting about among the dusty heaps of lumber.
"Mrs. Wriggs," said the Squire, "there are a great many useless things here which we shall never want. I've been thinking that we might as well——"
"Yes, sir; no doubt there are many poor people who could turn them to some use," said Mrs. Wriggs. "And we might do worse than give them——"
"Give them!" said the Squire. "Doesn't it seem rather like bad taste to give away things which Providence has presented to us? Wouldn't it be taken as a sort of slight? I was thinking that we might sell them, now—for the good of the House, of course." The Squire represented the house: he did a great many things for the good of it—the temporal good, of course.
"Eh? Who would buy?" said the Squire. "If a thing is good enough to accept, Mrs. Wriggs, it has some value; what has a value is worth buying. Let us collect all the articles we have no further use for, and obtain the highest price for them, by way of showing to that Providence which has bestowed them upon us that they have a value in our eyes. I will accompany you downstairs, and see what broken saucepans and other utensils there may be there. Every little helps, in a good cause."