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

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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]

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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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V E R L Y N that it must be good if Tobias would praise it like that. Tom arrived early that evening. Alice insisted that he go right up to see the ghost. “Of course,” she said, “it may not appear tonight. But if you have to go back to town tomorrow afternoon, why you must make some attempt to see it. It really scared me terribly last night. I’m glad you are here with me tonight. You can come up in the morning while I’m at the hair dresser’s and look the place over. Why do we call ghosts ‘it’ instead of ‘he’ or ‘she’,” and Alice rat- tled on, very nervous over her ap- proaching act. “Tell me about the ghost again, dear,” said Tom when they were al- most there. Alice told him about the panel open- ing slowly and of the bluish light, and she laughed a little nervously at the end! “At least the ghost isn’t very aggres- sive,” said Tom, trying to calm Alice. He was quite worried about her, and wondered if he shouldn’t have agreed to buy her an old house minus the ghost. After all, if they bought a house with a ghost, they’d have to live with it, and that might not be so pleasant. “Here we are, Tom,” whispered Alice. “I hope the window doesn’t make too much noise.” “Shouldn’t you have gotten the key?” asked Tom. He didn’t like the idea of climbing in the window of a haunted house. “No, darling, this is fine.” answered Alice. “Help me up, please.” In a minute they were both standing in the old living room. “We'll have to wait,” whispered Alice. “It was quite a while coming last night.” Alice established herself as comfort- ably as possible on the floor, so that she could press the spring when the time came. Tom sat a little way from her, leaning against a box. Thus they sat for the next hour. Alice was very still, but Tom stirred and twisted every so often. Alice de- cided that Tom didn’t like to wait for ghosts. Finally he asked a bit hoarsely, “Is the old fool never coming?” “Ssh,” said Alice, her foot near the spring. Suddenly she pressed the spring, and as the door opened slowly, gasped, “Look, Tom, it’s here.” With an exclamation, Tom jumped to his feet, and toward the door, but before he could reach it, it had slammed shut. Alice and Tobias had rehearsed that well. Then Tom, a very puzzled man, turn- ed to comfort Alice, who was cowering down on the floor. Tom left for the city the next day. He had not agreed to buy the house. He told Alice that he was not sure it would be a good idea to live in a haunt- ed house if the ghost insisted upon pay- ing them nightly visits in such an aw- ful way. He promised Alice that he would think it over, and tell her his decision when he returned two days later. Saturday afternoon when Tom re- turned, Alice could get nothing out of him. He wouldn’t say “yes” or “no”. “But Tom,” she said, “you said you’d tell me when you came back.” “I know, dear, but I’ve been think- ing it over; we don’t want to live in a haunted house. If we can lay the ghost, all well and good. Now I’ve a theory [12]