Eastern High School - Punch and Judy Yearbook (Washington, DC)

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THE EASTERNER uf The Ghost at Hopewell H. Wats For several years, Anderson and I had been spending our summers in New Hampshire.. It was merely by accident that we had started this custom, for we had originally known nobody in New Hampshire. One summer, having been given a month's vacation, we had gone north, and going from one little town to another, we had stumbled upon Hope- well. Hopewell was a quaint little puritani- cal town, with small white houses and old willow trees. Tle scenery about Hopewell was especially entrancing and Anderson, having a great deal of artistic temperament, and, indeed, artistic abil- ity (for he had sold several canvasses) was captivated by it. We spent the rest of our vacation there, and found the people delightfully old-fashioned and their homes interesting, because of the many antiques and relics of by-gone days that they contained. The next year, we went there again, and it was then that we made the ac- quaintance of Joseph Garret. When we went to the tiny tavern in the center of the town, we were told that there was an overflow, and that Garret, who lived by himself and who they said was a peculiar old man, would give us a room, A country fair was in town and as a dozen people would produce an overflow in the tavern, we went to Garret’s. Garret’s house, we found, was one of the most pretentious in the place. The grounds were spacious, with flowers and bushes in abundance . The lawn was well kept and there were several trees in the yard. One of which we noted, as we went in the side gate, seemed to grow so close to the house that one of its branches seemed to go through a window in the side of the house, and we learned later that this tree had a most interesting his- tory. ‘The house was large and architec- turally handsome, but sadly in need of re- pairs. It needed painting and many of the window panes were broken and mend- ed with rags and paper. On the door we found a brass knocker, and after rapping several times we heard some feeble steps resounding inside. An old man, without any collar and coat, and with his suspenders trailing behind him, opened the door. This was Joseph Gar- ret. He was ninety-three, and except for his poor eyesight, remarkably healthy, for his advanced years. After telling him who we were, he admitted us, and we found that the interior of the house had none of the shabbiness of the outside. It was handsomely furnished, containing not only all of the interesting things of New Eng- land, but many foreign curios, especially of the orient, showing that Garret must have been a traveller at one time. In the days that followed, we found that Garret was very interesting He had travelled extensively, had been well educated, and though he was abreast of the times, he lived for the most part in old memories. At first we thought the people at the tavern wrong in calling him peculiar, but after a few days he told us the following tale, which we could hardly believe to be reasonable. “This house,” he said, “was built by my father, with his own hands, eight years before Iwas born. As J am ninety- three, the old place is one hundred and one years old.” He took us to the window in his room and showed us the tree that we had no-

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THE EASTERNER G the remains of her once envied suit of hair into a newspaper, tip-toed ‘down- stairs and into the back yard. With a spade she dug a hole end placed the bun- dle in it anc covered it over. Any misgivings that she may have had were promptly quelched and Mary Jane slipped out the back ard just as she had so often longed to do, a boy. “Who are you?” asked Jamie, as the stranger walked over to where they were playing. “Ah, me name's, Mike, and 1 betcha I can get more home runs than anybody else.” “Ah, you can not.” “I can so.” “I can, too.” “You can't beat me.” “IT say you can't.” “T could beat you a hundred times if I wanted to.” “You couldn't.” “T could.” A fist shot out and Mary Jane, alias Mike, rolled in the dust. “Bah, get up and I'll hit ou again.” Mary Jane rose slowly to her feet and drew a hand across a bloody nose. The on-lookers had formed a ring about the two, eager to witness a fight. “Come on and fight me, you sissy.” “] ain’t no boy,” sobbed Mary Jane and fled, leaving a wonder-struck set of kids to marvel at the strange incident. Down the road she ran, stumbling and sobbing, a sad ghost of her bragging self of a min- ute ago. Straight through the gate, through the yard and up the steps she went. “Mamma, oh, Mamma, where are you, Mamma?” she called. “Why what on earth has happened,” anxiously cried Mrs. Clark, running in from tlie sitting room. “Why Mary Jane 1” she gasped as she beheld her renegade daughter. Mary Jane clung to her mother an dsobbed out her pitiful tale. “And your lovely, lovely, curls. Oh, Mary Jane, how could you?” “] wanted to be a boy so bad.” Her mother only looked at her and then finally said, “Well, perhaps this will teach you a lesson that you will not soon for- get. For a week you shall wear those clothes.” It was after dusk. Supper had been cleared away and Mary Jane's father and mother sat on the front porch enjoying the quiet of a summer evening. She, still wearing Freddie’s suit, sat on the lower step with her chin on her hand. : Present- ly two figures were seen coming down the street. One was Jamie Patterson and the other was Katherine Stewert in a crisp white dress tied with a large pink sash and a large pink bow on her long brown curls. They passed by on to the other side of the street into the corner drug store. Mary Jane watched them en- ter and saw them sit down at the table. Then she saw two glasses placed before them with soda water in them. Katherine coyly glanced at Jamie through lowered lashes and carelessly shook her curls. Mary Jane saw no more, She stifled a sob and crept from the porch around to the back yard. In the semi-darkness she groped for a spade. She pushed the loose dirt back from the place she had put it in the afternoon and drew the moist par- cel out. With shaking fingers she un- wrapped it. In her lap lay her shorn beauty. Mary Jane’s head dropped down upon her curls and sobs shook her small frame.

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THE FASTERNER 8 ticed when we had first come to live with him. Lows Sahel “That tree,” he said, “was old, W the house was built, and God knows how old it is now. When ] was a young man, scarcely more than a boy, this room was made mine, as none of my five sisters (all are dead now) would use it on account of the tree's keeping out all the light. “One night when Twas about twenty years old, 1 found myself unable to sleep. 1 was drowsy as if doped, and a queer faint odor pervaded the room. I after- wards learned it was the odor of the sweet-pea. None of them grow in this part of the country, and forever after it has had a queer effect upon me, produc- ing nausea and a queer mental condition, as if 1 were half recalling dim recollec- tions of a previous life. These ideas never became tangible. They were simply fleet- ing ideas that coursed through my brain. This particular night, I seemed to hear voices talking at the foot of my bed, and every once in a while some one would take a few steps across the floor. To save my life I could not move a single limb or open my eyes. I was in a stupor, unable to move or think, but still receiv- ing definite ideas. After a while, I seemed to hear a loud clamor at the window sill and then a low moan, After that the noise subsided. “It did not seem as if I really slept at all that night, except as I have said, I was in a dull stupor. Early in the morning, I scemed to experience a feeling of re- lief of some kind, and I opened my eyes and got up. Nothing appeared to be dis- turbed in the room. I went to the win- dow. There was a fresh coolness in the air. The sun had not appeared over the distant hill tops yet. . Everything was gray. 1 glanced down. There | saw a sight so horrible that 1 was rooted to the ground. 1 have seen this self same sight a dozen times since, but never has it Pr peared so'gha stly: Hanging on the near- est limb of the tree outside my window was a lifeless body, with head sunken low on its breast. I could almost reach out and touch its sunken cheeks. The body was horribly deformed and the sightless eyes bulging out of its head sent a shiver down my spine. “The corpse was that of a man of ¢]- derly middle age. Whether it was a case of suicide or not, we never knew. We could not identify him. As my father cut him down, I smelt that detestable odor of sweet-peas. We buried him underneath the tree and he lies there to this day. “This incident happened on August 2. Five years later, to the day, I was return- ing late at night, froma neighboring farmhouse, when ,as I entered the side te of the house, I saw that same hor- rible sight that I had seen five years pre. vious, A black figure silhouetted against the full moon and swaying slowly back and forth outside my window. I fainted in a very unmanly manner. I woke up in the morning and found that I had been carried to my room. There was still the unmistakable odor of sweet-peas, but the body was gone. My family said that they did not smell any odor nor had they seen any body. This, they said, was the first of a series of epileptic fits. They lied. I have never been anything but sane. 1 have deeper penetration than most men and I have seen things so horrible that I cannot repeat them even to you—but ev- ery five years on the night of the second of August, I have seen that same black spectre. Again five years have passed, and tonight is the night. You will sce the man.” Here he became agitated and began to talk to himself in an incomprehensible manner. He left the room and Anderson