MYSTERY MANOR

Evening Post, Volume CXXVI, Issue 128, 26 November 1938, Page 20

MYSTERY MANOR

(Original.)

Weird and fanciful were the tales told of the lonely manor., tm Grey ; Heather Moor. One was that i£ was i the night abode of an evil old witch. Another said that the ghost of a cavalier haunted its rooms, whCe several other tales dealing with ghosts and their ramblings through the old manor at the bewitching hour of midnight were woven around that bleak and lonely old house.

Dolly and Don Morley, although they did not believe these tales, held in awe that weather-beaten manor in the heart of Grey Heather Moor. One day they chanced to be walking in the vicinity of the manor when it began to rain-, lightly at first but fast growing heavier and steadier, and ere ten. minutes had elapsed the moor was a mucfdj*' quagmire, and still the rain increased!.

Lightning flashed in vivid streaks across a dark grey sky. Thunder rolled deafeningly in the distance, and the moor was fast becoming a grey blanket of rain with occasional stinging, lashing showers of hailstones. For a mile the children plodded on, faces turned downwards, boots squelching, and wet, bedraggled hair plastered about their faces. By this time it was blqwing a gale, and when Don and Dolly came to the supposedly haunted manor, they did not hesitate to think of the stories- surrounding It, but walked boldly into its rickety porch, , ~ Suddenly the door, opened, and instead of a legendary spectre, there appeared, a dear little old woman, who smiled at them in a friendly fashion, saying: "Come in, my dears. You look positively drowned. Come, I'll get you some hot cpffee and let you dry your clothes."

For a moment Dolly hung back, thinking no doubt of Hansel and Gretel and the sugar house; but-seeing that her brother was unafraid she stepped shyly in. However, all fears were banished when the dear old lady gave them home-made cookies and hot coffee, and, wrapping them in blankets, dried their clothes by a large open fire.

Very soon the trio sitting round the fire knew all abtmt each other, and Don was about to tell of the ghost tales when Dolly kicked his foot. When tne ciiiMren*s v clothes were dry r "Granny,'* as Don and Dolly called their hostess, showed them some of her own and her husband's childhood treasures. Dolly went into raptures over a lovely doll and Don over a model pirate ship.

By this time the rain had ceased and the children reluctantly bid their hostess farewell, but not without promising to call again in the very near future.

"And that," said one to the other, "solves the mystery of the manor on the moor." UNSIGNED. • • •