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

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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]

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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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January - 1938 about that ghost, and we’ll go up there tonight and watch again.” Alice knew that objections would do no good, so she kept quiet, but decid- ed that Tom would not see the ghost that night. They went up about eight o’clock. Alice sat in a different place, this time. She was glad that she had decided not to show the ghost tonight, for the moonlight was brilliant, and the room quite light. Tom sat down, and they waited for half an hour, or more. Then Alice stirred restlessly—she hated this wait- ing when she knew nothing would hap- pen. Suddenly she looked up startled. Then she screamed. The door was opening slowly, and a skeleton, its empty eye sockets glowing faintly, was emerging. Its bones rattled slightly The rattling of the bones was too much for Alice. She fled out the win- dow and down the road, Tom after her. “I’ll never go near that place again,” quavered Alice, “It was ghastly! You and your theories,” she cried, turning to Tom. “Why didn’t you leave it alone. It was fine until you tried to catch it. Oh, let’s go home,” she con- tinued. “I don’t like old houses in the country!” Next morning, however, she thought differently-----. “Now that it’s daylight, I’m not afraid. And I still want a house in the country. Tom, let’s go up and solve the mystery of the ghost.” And when Tom demurred, she said “I’ll go alone, if you won’t come.” Reluctantly Tom agreed, and to- gether they approached the scene of their scare the night before. On the [ 13 J way up, Alice told Tom she knew how to get into the panel. Tom was sur- prised and interested. They climbed in the window, which was open from the night before. And then Alice show- ed Tom where the spring was. She pressed it, and gasped,—for when the panel opened, a skeleton emerged, hanging to the rack. It wasn’t so terrifying in the daylight, so Alice examined it closely. Suddenly she looked up, and with a very red face, walked out to where Tom stood. “I’m sorry, Tom,” she said, “I guess I don’t deserve an old house. But I wanted one so badly, and I thought it would do no harm. Come on, let’s go.” “You darling,” said Tom, “I think I’m the one to be forgiven. You know, the other morning when I came up here to look the place over, before go- ing back to the city, I smelled a rat. I found your spring, and when I discov- ered what you’d done, I decided to give you a dose of your own medicine, so I had that skeleton sent up from my office, and your old friend Tobias rigged it up. He certainly did a good job!” and Tom started to laugh.— “However,” he said, “it might interest you to know that I’ve bought the house, and the deed is made out in your name.”