Lyndon State College - Northern Lights Yearbook (Lyndonville, VT)

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V E R L Y N “Oh, you darling,” rejoiced Alice, “I knew you’d give in. I’ll find one with a ghost. Don’t you worry. And your stuffy old office can wait.” Two days later Alice left on her search. At noon she arrived at the tiny town of West Hollow. It was a small town, but it intrigued her, for the hills around it were high, and she hoped to find an old house on one of them. Taking advantage of a sign which read “Bed and Board”, Alice took ac- commodations in a comfortable old house on Main Street. At dinner that noon, Mrs. Brown in- troduced Alice to Tobias Haveless. “Tobias,” she said, “will be able to help you find your old house. He has lived all of his seventy years in West Hol- low, and during those seventy years has seen fit to pick up the story of every scandal that has happened in the vicin- ity in the last two hundred years. There are a few ghosts, aren’t there, Tobias?” “There be,” agreed the old man. “Why, up in that Gorham House I “But Tobias, that house burned down two years ago. Mrs. Trent is only interested in houses that are standing.” “Perhaps,” suggested Alice, “you will go for a ride with me after dinner, and you can show me these houses which have ghosts, and then you may tell me the stories.” “Glad to,” muttered Tobias, start- ing to eat. He did not like to be cut off short in telling one of his ghost stories. After dinner Alice, under the guid- ance of Tobias, piloted the car up a steep hill. As they neared the top, a magnificent view spread out before them. Alice gazed a moment, then turned to Tobias. “You must find me a house with a ghost, on this road, Tobias. It’s won- derful.” “There’s this house here,” said To- bias, pointing to a crumbling ruin. “Ralph Prescott’s great, great grand- father was murdered there, and the old man has ha’nted the place ever since.” “But Tobias, that place is a ruin. There’s nothing there to fix. What about this place?” Alice pointed to a lonely old square house set among towering elms, with half the world spread out at its feet. “Isn’t that for sale, and has it a ghost?” “It’s for sale, ma’am, but there ain’t no ghost in that place,” admitted To- bias, shaking his head. “I’m going to have a look at it, any- way.” Alice got out of the car. “Will you come with me?” “No, thank ya’ ma’am. I’ll stay here,” and Tobias settled himself for a nap in the sun. Alice walked admiringly towards the house. It was lovely, and with that view—if only it had a ghost—maybe Tobias had forgotten. Anyway, it would do no harm to look. She pried gingerly at one of the win- dows. It opened haltingly and she climbed in. As she stood up, the win- dow banged shut behind her. Alice jumped. A fine person she was—plan- ning to live in a haunted house, and a mere banging window scared her half out of her wits! Alice calmed herself, and looked around. This must have been the kitchen, for there was an immense fire- place with Dutch ovens. If the rest [10]

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January 19 3 8 Ghost Or No Ghost By BARBARA ROSE Tom Drew sat before the fire doz- ing, his head on his chest, a newspaper held limply in his hand. A log rolled. He roused himself, poked the fire, and then stretched out comfortably in his chair, feet toward the blaze. It had been a hard day, what with that major operation in the morning, all those calls in the afternoon, and so many people in the office after supper. And he had missed Alice, too. Three days had seemed like three years when she was gone. She should be back soon. He glanced at the clock. Yes, any min- ute now. Footsteps sounded in the hall, and a cheery voice greeted the maid. The next minute the library door opened, and Alice came in. “Ah, there you are, darling,” she cried, coming over to the fire as Tom arose. She kissed him, then drew off her coat and threw it on the couch— “Oh, but it’s grand to be home.” Perch- ing on the arm of the chair, she invited Tom to sit down again — “Did you miss me?” “Terribly,” admitted Tom. “Tell me, did you have a good time?” “Wonderful. We did the town from A to Z. We went to Radio City, and Jack Dempsey’s Restaurant, and a mil- lion other places. But tell me about yourself. Have you been very busy? You look tired.” “Quite, but things have gone well. There’s quite a lot of sickness, but no- body seems to be seriously ill. Mrs. Preston sent her check yesterday, and I received Jackman’s this morning.” “Both while I’ve been gone! Grand! They’re big ones, too, aren’t they?” “They certainly are” said Tom, look- ing pleased. “Well,” said Alice slowly, “we haven’t any debts, and nothing to buy at present, so it seems to me, Thomas Drew, that you have no excuse what- ever for not buying me an old house in the country. You know I’m dying to have one.” “But Alice,” Tom objected, “you know that I’ve got to have the office redecorated, and some new furniture in the waiting-room. That couch fairly sags.” “That was all new last year, and be- sides, it won’t cost much to redecorate the office. No, Tom, you’ve absolutely no excuse this time.” “All right, darling. I’ll make a bar- gain with you,” Tom spoke slowly, cal- culatingly, “You mustn’t get any or- dinary old house------.” “Of course,” agreed Alice. “It must have the distinction,” con- tinued Tom, “of having an honest-to- goodness ghost, that I can see. I won’t buy it otherwise. But if you find one with a ghost, you may have it. Other- wise, I get my office redecorated, and the new waiting-room furniture.” Tom thought complacently that with such a string attached, he might as well go ahead and see the decorators. He’d like an old house, but he’d never get any time to stay there if he had it, so why------. [9]

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January - 1938 of the rooms were like this----! She entered the living room. Broken shades hung over the windows so that the room seemed quite dark. In the gloomy light, Alice could see a fire- place and paneling of wide pine boards. Suddenly she stopped. Had she heard a footstep, or was it her imagin- ation deceiving her. She listened. Everything was quiet. Stifling her imagination, Alice turned to examine the paneling — Lovely, wide pine—. She drew back suddenly. This time her imagination was not deceiving her for a panel was opening slowly, a little creakily. Alice gasped, then started to laugh, a little hysterically, perhaps— For peering around the door, and grin- ning toothlessly, was Tobias. “Tobias Haveless! Where on earth?” exclaimed Alice when she had regained her composure, “You scared me half to death.” “S’cuse me, ma’am,” he apologized, “but I thought I’d like to come up and see how ya’ liked the old house, and I couldn’t h’ist these old bones through the window, so I come up from the cellar.” “I’ll forgive you this time,” said Alice, “because you showed me this secret passage. Tell me about it, To- bias.” “Wa’al, I us’ta come up here and play in it when I was a boy. There ain’t no ghost in here, though.” “Tobias, you’ve got to help me think of some way to invent a ghost. I won’t let this place go — it’s too lovely.” Alice perched on a window sill, deep in thought, while Tobias puttered around the rooms. Alice called to him, “There’s electricity in this house, isn’t there? Who owns this place?” “There’s electricity here ma’am, and my cousin he owns it. He’d be awful glad to sell. He says the place is a bur- den on his old age.” ‘Your cousin wouldn’t care if we changed one of the electrical outlets, would he?” queried Alice. “It might sell the place for him.” “He wouldn’t be knowing whether ya’ changed it, or not, so go to it.” “Tobias,” said Alice suddenly, “you’re going to put your carpentering skill to good use tomorrow. You’re going to help me invent a ghost; then Tom will buy the place.” Tobias consented eagerly. The idea seemed to appeal to him. The next morning, bright and early, he was ready to go. Before leaving, however, Alice telegraphed to Tom to come next day, so confident was she in her ghost-creating abilities. Then she secured the services of a local electri- cian, and the three of them went up to the house. After the electrician had put a plug in the “closet”, he went back to town, and left Alice and Tobias ready to make the ghost. Tobias fixed the door so that Alice could open it while standing several feet away. Then he screwed up a frame that turned on the light and moved it toward the door when the panel was opened. Alice inserted a small blue bulb and draped a piece of cloth over it. The effect was really quite ghostly when she darkened the room and tried it. Even Tobias liked it well enough to say, “That there contraption ought ’a skeer anybody. It almost skeers me now, and me knowing what it be.” Alice was very pleased, for she felt [11]