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f-' AS YOU GO THROUGH LIFE.
Don’t look for the flaws as you go through
life:
And even when you And them,
It is wise and kind to be somewhat blind
And look for the virtue behind them.
For the cloudiest night has a hint of light
Somewhere in its shadows hiding;
Ctis tetter by far to hunt for a star.
Than the spots on the sun abiding.
’The current of life runs ever away
To the bosom of God’s great ocean.
Don't set your force’gainst the river’s course
And think to alter its motion
Don’t waste a curse on the universe—
Remember, it lived before you.
Don’t butt at the storm with your punny
form—
Rut bend and let it go o'er you.
The world will never adjust itself
To suit your whims to the letter.
Some things must go wrong your whole life
long,
And the sooner you know it the better.
It is folly to fight with the Infinite,
And go under at last in the wrestle.
The wiser man, shapes into God’s plan
As the water shapes into a vessel.
—Ella IF. !i ilcox, in Ladies' Home Journal.
THE WARNEFORD GHOST.
BT 5IHS. ROBERT JOCELYN.
“The house is very full, Florence, and
1 thought you would not mind sleeping
in this room,” said Mary Warneford, as
she ushered me into a large, airy bed¬
room, into which the bright rays "of the
setting sun were streaming gloriouslv on
a certain afternoon in a by-gone June.
“I really see no visible reason why I
should do so,” I replied jestingly, with a
smile. “I think it about as charming a
room as it well can be. ”
“The room is fairly pleasant in its
way,” she retuined carelessly. “Only,
as you know, it is supposed to be
haunted.”
“Haunted?” I repeated, rather aghast.
“Do you meau to say that this is the
haunted room?”
“\es, it is the room that is said to be
haunted,” she replied quietly. “Do you
object to it? If so, pray say so, dear.”
Her words woke me to a seuse of my
duty to my hostess. “Oh, dear no,” 1
replied quickly. “I call it most inter¬
esting!”
“Very interesting, no doubt, to those
Who believe in ghosts,” she returned
quietly. “I do not, or H should not
have put you in this room. S
“Of course, I know that,and of course
the ghost question is all nonsense, ” I
agreed lightly.
“Just so, dear,” she returned in the
same tone. “I knew you were blessed
with a little common sense, and that was
why I selected you as a suitable occu¬
pant for this room. We all know you
arc quite! above anything of this sort, and
do not possess such inconvenient things as
‘nerves.’ ”
And with this flattering assurance
ringing in my ears I found myself alone
in the haunted room of Warneford Ab-
bey.
' I looked curiously around it. A
charming room certainly, but hftunted,
the haunted room.
Now the haunted room at Wr-rneford
Abbey was about as well known as the
haunted house iu Berkley Square, and for
years it had been closely locked against
all possible intruders. It wa3 aa under-
stood fact that the late Sir Charles
Warneford did not like any mention of
the Warneford ghost to be made in his
presence. There had been a charming '
mystery about the Warneford haunted
room. Everyone had told a different I
story about it, and every one was quite
sure that his version of it was the true
one. Some people swore it was a man;
6ome people knew for a fact it was a
woman; others were sure it wa3 a mon-
ster, too dreadful iu its hideousness to be
described, and others had been told, on
reliable authority, that it had a tail and
cloven feet, and its form altogether was
the reverse to heavenly.
But when Mary’s husband, the present
baronet, came into the property,
he did very shortly before the time this
story begins, he took quite an original
view of the case, and proclaimed far and
wide that there was no ghost at fill, much
less a monster. Mary backed him up
about it. They unlocked the room, had
it thoroughly done up and refurnished,
and gave it to be understood that they
could not understannd how any one in
their senses could possibly have believed
that there could have been a word of
truth in aDy of those old, foolish, super-
stitious stories.
And it was thus that Mary coolly in¬
troduced the first guest into that haunted
room.
I gazed round the room in an awestrick¬
en manner, and came quickly to the con¬
clusion that the thing I liked the least in
it was the bed. A heavy, dark, old bed-
stead, on which was carved innumerable,
extremely unattractive objects. Heads
of murderous-looking meu and women,
interwoven among horrible, open-mouthed
animals, which had never been copied
from any of the species supposed to have
come out of the Ark, and were none the
less ghastly because their proportions
were a physical impossibility. No, I
certainly did not like the bed in which
l was doomed to sleep that night at all.
However, luckily for my peace of mind,
I had not much time to spare in medita-
tion. We had arrived just in time for
dinner—papa, Molly and I—and when
Mary left me I had only half an hour in
which to unpack my dressing case, rum-
mage in my box for some evening
clothes, and dress myself for dinner
(Molly was the beauty of our family,
and, therefore, of course, monopolized
the almost undivided attention of our
maid).
We spent a pleasant enough evening.
Mary understood thoroughly how to keep
things going, and it was long after 12
o'clock when wc ladies trooped upstairs
to bed.
Mollie came into my room for a few
moments, and commented condescend¬
ingly upon the fact that it was a nice
room. I fancied she was rather annoyet
to find it much larger and more elabor¬
ately furnished than her own. Molly
was a capital girl in some ways, but just
a trifle spoilt in others, and she used to
like to be thought a very important
young lady, and to get the best of every¬
thing. Anyway, she did not stay long
with me that evening, but, after a few re¬
marks, she went yawning off to her own
room.
It was next door to mine.
Once again I found myself alone in the
haunted room. But this time I was re¬
solved not to think about it. I was
nervous, and I knew that the more my
mind dwelt upon the matter, the more
nervous I should become,and so I bustled
energetically about the room, heaped
coals upon the fire, which,had the season
had its due,ought to have been conspicu¬
ous by its absence, and began to un¬
dress.
I had not mentioned anything about
it to Molly. Talking about it would only
have made it worse, and Molly would
probably only have laughed at me had I
done so, for since she was not going to
sleep in the haunted room herself, she
would certainly have been disposed to
treat the ghost question lightly.
A tap at my door, and Marsden, our
maid, entered the room. “I shall not
want anything to-night, Marsden,” I ex¬
claimed, upon seeing her.
“If you will excuse my doing so, I
wish to say a few words to you,my lady,”
she replied, in a rather nervous manner.
“There are some terrible tales going
down in the housekeeper’s room, my
lady, about this room,” she said, in a
mysterious "“Thank whisper,
you, Marsden. I know all
about it, though. Haunted?” I replied,
with would-be indifference.
“Yes, my lady, terribly haunted, I be¬
lieve, and, not feeling quite happy about
your ladyship's sleeping here, I took the
liberty of looking about the room a little
this evening.
“Thank you again, Marsden, for
thinking of me. Well, and what have
you discovered?” I returned lightly.
“This, my lady,” she replied quietly,
drawing aside a curtain as she spoke, and
disclosing behind it a small paneled
door.
“Is it a cupboard?” I inquired.
“No, my lady,” she replied, opening
the door and revealing a small, narrow,
extremely steep, winding flight of stairs.
“I don’t know where it leads to.” she
continued solemnly, “but I don t like
the looks of it.”
As a matter of fact, no more did I.
“We will lock this door, Marsden,” I re¬
turned with decision.
“There is neither- key nor bolt, your
ladyship,” she exclaimed protestinglv.
And, seeing that she was right in this,
I was forced lo hide my fears, and, feign-
ing indifference, to put an end to the
matter by dismissing her. But uo sooner
had she left me than I seized a candle-
stick and hurried into Molly's room. I
had given up all idea of sleeping alone in
the Warneford Abbey haunted room,
Molly already was sleeping soundly,
but without a moment’s consideration I
woke her.
“What is it, deal?” she inquired
drowsily.
“Wake up, Molly, I want to talk to
you,” I replied briskly, sitting down on
the foot of her bed. “Can I sleep in
here with you?”
“My dear Florence, just look at the
bed!” she exclaimed, sitting up as she
spoke, and bestowing an indignant glance
upon me.
fc 4 It is certainly rather small,” I replied
dolefully,
“Small! Indeedit is. I assure you
it is nearly a half a yard too short, and
as to turning over in it, it is a sheer im-
possibility,” she returned testily,
“Oh, I am so glad!” I exclaimed, and
meant what I said.
“Glad?” she repeated.
“Very glad; because I have a huge
double bed in my room, and I want you
to share it with me,”
“But, my dear, I am so sleepy, and I
know you will talk all night.”
“No, indeed I will not, Molly,” I as-
sured her. “You must come; really,
The room is haunted.”
“Haunted?”
“Yes; haunted. Mary has given me
the haunted room, and I do really not
like it.”
“I will come, Florence,” she agreed at
once, “I call this too bad of Mary.
We can both sleep in here, and, of
course, you can not sleep alone there.”
And, without further delay, she put
on her dressing gown and followed me
into my room. It soon became evident
to me that she looked upon the forth-
coming night as a rather excitiug adven-
ture, and that upon the whole, she was
prepared to smile upon me for having
sought her protection. getting into bed, her
Just as she was
attention was attracted by ray friend,tbe
bedstead, and she peered curiously at it
for several minutes in her near-sighted
way, distinctly nasty,” she
“I call that re-
marked, with would-be gayety. “I won-
der if one can sleep comfortably in that
bed?”
*‘§hall we try?” I returned, suiting my
tone to hers, and before long we both
had our heads on the pillows.and silence
reigned in the haunted room.
So complete was the silence that 1
believed Molly to have gone to sleep al¬
most immediately. I was rather restless
myself, but was just dozing off at last,
when Molly turned over so violently two
or three times that she left me absolutely
without bedclothes. I was obliged to
remonstrate, although reluctant to do so
beeause of her good nature in coming
into my haunted room with me.
“You pulled all the bedclothes off
when you turned over the last* time,
dear,” I protested, gently, “I really
should not have disturbed you about it if
you had left the sheet, but-”
“Pray take them all,” she replied
shortly (Molly’s temper was rather short
sometimes), “This is a most uneom-
fortable arrangement. cross,” I suggested
“Do not be
calmly. sleep,” she agreed.
“Let us go to
This time nothing happened to disturb
us, and we both did go to sleep, and
slept for several hours.
When I next woke I did so with a
start, and, trembling all over, sat bolt
upright in bed.
My breath came in quick, spasmodio
gasps, my heart beat wildly, and my
eyes became fixed in a horrid stare upon
the curtain which covered the secret
door.
Undeniably there were footsteps com¬
ing slowly and stealthily down the hidden
staircase!
The fire burnt dimly in the grate,
casting an unnatural, ghostly light over
the scene, and horribly weird did that
large, oak-paneled room look by that
feeble, flickering light. Utterly power¬
less to move or speak, I sat there in a
waking nightmare as those footsteps
came nearer and nearer, until at last they
stopped just outside the door.
I tried to close my eyes; but, no! some
strange uncanny influence seemed to hold
them riveted upon the curtain, which
presently was slowly drawn aside.
Very stealthily the thin emaciated
figure of a tall woman entered the room.
Slowly and noiselessly this black-robed-
figure crossed over to one of the windows,
pulled back the curtains with a long,
blue-white haud, and stood gazing out¬
ward in the soft brilliant light of the full
moon.
Still unable to stir a finger or utter a
single word, I seemed to live a lifetime,
while that shrouded figure stood there in
that weird light with its back toward
me.
Suddenly it moved, turned toward
me, and began to rapidly move across
the room toward the bed in which 1
lay. plainly
Murder and insanity were
visible upon the face of the woman who
approached me. 1 Htf long was
thrown back, and in her right hand she
held a large and extremely awkward-
looking knife. But, ah, Heaven! the
relief of it! It was a living woman with
whom I had to deal!
Another second and I had roused
Molly, and was out of bed, struggling
with my friend, whom I so much sur¬
prised by the quickness of my movements
that, with only the matter of two un¬
pleasant gashes, one on my hand and
another on hers, I succeed in wresting
the knife from her and throwing it far
away out of the open window.
Then it merely became a case of phys¬
ical strength, and, as I was luckily a
strongly-built woman, I held my own
satisfactorily against her, until Molly
brought everyone in the house into the
haunted room, by her screams in the cor¬
ridor outside it.
It proved to be the housekeeper. who
had lived at Warneford for nearly fifty
years, and whom no one had ever con¬
nected with the ghost in the haunted
room, although the servants declared
that they had always known that she
suffered from fits of insanity, but that
they had uever cared to mention it,
knowing that she was a favorite and a
valuable old servant. They had believed
her to be quite harmless.
A little mistake, by the way, which
might have been awkward for me.
Heavy Damages for Railroad Injuries.
The heaviest damages that were ever
paid for an injury to a single man was
$45,000, paid by the Grand Trunk,
after trying the case three times. The
jury increased the damages at each trial,
Among the most costly accidents ever
known in the country were those on the
York Central at New Hamburg,
on the Lake Shore at Ashtabula, on the
Eastern at Revere, and on the West Jer¬
sey at May’s Landing. The last was
proportionately the cheapest $S1,000 settled, as
the company paid only for
about niueteen deaths and injuries to
about twice as many.
The collision at Revere cost the East¬
ern over $400,000 for less than twenty
deaths, among them two distinguished
clergymen; the Ashtabula cost over a
quarter of a million, and one at Wollas¬
ton, on the Old Colony, cost about the
same. The Eastern settled one case,
growing out of the Revere accident, for
$25,000, without taking it into court.
The Chatsworth accident, on the Toledo,
Peoria A Western, was the most costly
to human life, the deaths being 141, but
the claims were settled for about a quar¬
ter of a million, as the company could
not pay any more, If the case bad been
pushed the stockholders would have
been obliged to hand over the road;
their equity in it after the first mortgage
was little more than the loss. —Mail and
Express.
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