THE LITTLE GREY GHOST

Evening Post, Volume CXXIV, Issue 105, 30 October 1937, Page 20

THE LITTLE GREY GHOST

CTEPHANIE was a quiet child . . . an absent-minded child. Aunt Katherine ..said regularly every morning, "Stephanie would lose her. head if it were, not screwed on." She often forgot her school. things,, and plump. Aunt Katherine had to run after her with them. And Stephanie was used to hearing people say, "What can Stephanie be staring at?" "Don't gaze

Half-way to school she met it; a little grey one with great round eyes, a grey veil, and long grey skirts that trailed on the road. Stephanie did not feel at all afraid. This was rather a sweet ghost. She looked lost and lonely in the morning sunshine. Her voice was slow and timid as she asked, "Little girl, can you tell me the way to Hollyhock Cottage?" • Stephanie was startled then. Hollyhock Cottage was her Aunt Katherine's home. And Aunt Katherine lost her breath if ghosts were even mentioned! Stephanie's thoughts passed quickly through her mind. Was not this the morning Of Hallowe'en? She felt she knew, who this little grey ghost was. It was old Miss Marks who used to live at Hollyhock Cottage years ago. Aunt Katherine had bought the house when she died. Stephanie turned scarlet. Shis had forgotten that ghpsts sometimes read people's thoughts. She said, "O, yes. It is not far froni: here. I'll take you." She turned back, and walked beside the strange little' figure. The ghost did not speak, arid Stephanie was too busy thinking to make polite conversation. A plan was forming in her mind—a plan to save Aunt Kathefine, who must not be confronted by this ghost; She would be terribly, upset. They

were passing the gardener's shed when Stephanie said suddenly, "Come and see the new- pot plants!" The ghost peeped inside, then took a few steps across the floor. Stephanie, with a brave heart, darted out and slipped the wooden bar that held the door in place. There was no window—only a skylight in the roof. The ghost was a prisoner! Stephanie ran all the way to school. There she felt safe. Ghosts didn't visit schoolrooms. And she had saved Aunt Katherine. At lunch-time Stephanie reached Hollyhock Cottage, by a short cut through a gap in the hedge. This way skirted the gardener's shed. Aunt Katherine seemed shorttempered, and Molly the maid had red eyes and thumped the dishes down on the table. Stephanie ate her lunch In hurried silence. She felt somehow that she must get back to school as soon as possible. Aunt Katherine's sharp tones broke the silence. "What is the matter, Molly?" Stephanie looked up to see the maid dabbing at her eyes with her handkerchief. "It's mother, Miss Linton," she ! sniffled. "She said she was coming by the early train. My sister telephoned to say that she caught it all right, but she hasn't arrived, and I'm afraid she might have had a turn or Been carried

on to another station." Here the tears 'flowed freely. .■ .1 Stephanie bent , her head over her plate. Her ears began to prick. After all, she might have known that real ghosts could not be held under lock and key. In all the best stories they passed through all walls, even stout stone oftes. V" "There must be some explanation,said Aunt Katherine. "It will be all right, Molly. People don't just vanish." "May I go, please, Auntie," gulped Stephanie, half off her chair. "Yes," nodded her Aunt with a worried expression, "but don't forget— teeth and hands!'' Stephanie scrambled through these duties, then ran like a small whirlwind through the garden. Near the gardener's shed' she tip-toed soundlessly. She quickly slipped the bar that held the door, then darted between the trees, not waiting to see what happened next. She came home from school very slowly, but no grey ghost waited to accuse her. The return train to town had departed, and neither Aunt Katherine nor Molly had'connected dreamy Stephanie with the audacious culprit of the grey ghost's story. (A Hallowe'en story by "Crotopfttoh," City.*