Overwrought in the nerves by creaking- sounds , queer knockings , the rapid disappearance of all necessary articles and the continual appearence of filmy , white garments whisking round corners , mingled with the constant wailing from unknown quarters , the haggard damsel fled to the forest one heavy night in the same
quarter of the moon .
Arriving at a dark copse she was startled by a shrill shriek from the west , and . turning round sharply , the girl beheld an enormous ghost with a gaping cavity in his left cheek .
“ Come , my fellow specters , and view a breathing mortal ," wailed a wan . transparent voice . ( Though , to tell the honest truth ,
the mortal in question was anything but breathing just then ). " Ay , ay ! Ay , ay !" cried a million more small voices . There was a tense moment . Then a vibrating noise resounded in the affrighted girl ’ s ears and she found herself in her dead mother ’ s cold , clammy , clinging bed-sheets in a haunted and ancient bed chamber in her deceased father ’ s home .
At midnight she was awakened from her restless slumber by a rustling sound , and opening her tired eyes the girl beheld a myriad of spirits sifting through the walls , led by the fracturedskulled spectre , and followed up by her ghostly parents . A cold wave rushed up from her feet to the roots of her hair , then trickled down her back in jerky quivers . Then a queer thrill passed through her anatomy , which was no more , and she was received into the Land of the Spooks .
PATRICIA COWAN .
C i
— s o
A green little boy , in a green little way , A green little apple devoured one day . The little green grasses now tenderly wave O ’ er the green little apple boy ’ s green little grave .
17