A GHOST STORY.

Oxford Observer, Volume I, Issue 1, 17 August 1889, Page 3

A GHOST STORY.

:..:#. Mi..-* H- ?**.. >~T.M ,V;i;iV :■; ■:..:. V r^fdjp.thei^ej? Tor^^dependenfe') .4i GHQB?;i_H)_yy job. Bcientifib fbtrada^' *' il tiaris ialirath^a-go^^thiiig m ! 're^ ' f life, because we look; for'the science* 0 : v fis ! exi t tOm:,.Btorieß m * , these* days." ."•' . F Stre.etf ; nte''s6nie r ''Ud, -handsome houses still standing on it, and one of those i. was the.. .Meade: House;* .Gom^ i modor^Mead-' _jid _^s pother _iyp4' ! ; i^Wito&'ft^tyf^;^ after, • \ t bey n 4je4,j tfeft^^s^.wa__rented.fdr _ Iwhflie; Thenfor years 1 it stood empty' : f Among tfie ''being ,b#u#tea^ r^re„ Jh_uli_wd;i Isan^X'Be seexj deiid Gon_a_odore Ippk!m,iont>6\*dafr.;wto^ #M%,M ; oWke foe . itheiiiwoe-juns, to> make m the , kitchen. I's-jast s_e& Mriy sah, and, r it lib^s^t dkfo'/jo i^bpi_q^ ,: *• 'JS^&Wim will have to. givfi it, up, thai probabili-ties-are that !he will Bay-itto, the other •servajatsj -arid thatth'ey : w^' ejea? out ■f a -,M d y» -JM^tlwtf ,&ey, ( *w*UT infect Jverj, I bth^;.)S!eriant, v so that you. cannot persuade, one to come into ypur* Mtchen-.'; \^bia "was the ; J way with!. MeadP Houiiev;;,; B:^6ib^ ejnpljr sq^ long, howeve-'i that even tlie reasons

began to be forgotten. So it -fell that a certain business man, on the eve of financial [troubles ,% and !*with|a large family, looked about him for a large house at a moderate rent, and his eyes fell on the breadth and length of Meade House. He inqmred about it. The rent was fabulously little ; he examined it; the plumbing was all right. That is the main question., with a family of children — the healthiness of the house. Then he moved m, andl spread out m the broad, handsome old rooms, and thanked his stars, and yetwondered at his luck. Then an old inhabitant said one day, "jYou've got the haunted house, have you ; how do you like it|?" " Do not breathe it to my children," said the father, "they will fall down .m fits ; we have just enough Southern m us to stil-sbe a little superstitious. ' But tell me what you mean ?"■■*.-. „ " I'll show you," said the other, and: took him to the piazza that ran* along at the back bf the house, upon which the windows of the back parlor opened, looking also down the length of the yard to the servants' quarters at the ; end. He moved to a certain position, looked, and changed his place, and then said, " Come here and stand just where I am." .He did so, and there m the window-pane he saw a stern, set face, looking out at him ; for a ' moment, it was exactly as if it was ". looking at him ; then, as he invbltintarily made a movement, he saw it was shadowy and flickering, although clear. " Move a step or two forward," said the friend, " and look.again." He did "' so, and then he saw the face of an old lady with a cap on; the face of tbe 'man bearing a resemblance to it,. '"Move again,' Vsaid his Mend, and : then he saw the two faces superimposed upon each other, as.,they are m those -composite pictures, which have amused : us m the magazines within two or three years. . The faces were plainly ;seeri, and had also a little iridescent look a certain angles of view, and at .other angles one did not see them at all. .■-.-'. ;i?r "That is Commodore Meade and vhis mother. Do you wonder the servvants fled as they went down the back Tstepswith unduly acquired provisions . n their hands?" r '. Then both the gentlemen examined ': -the glass, and made enquiries of men .. learned m thebusiness of manufacirig glass. The panes of glass m that house are old French plate, brought over, more than a hundred years ago, and made from a flinteri sand of a peculiar sort. It has a fine lustre after it" is washed finer than the best plate . giass of the present day, and the supposition is that the Commodore and his; mother must have been, as they often were, she sitting by the window, apd he near it during a thunderstorm, and .some flash of lightning photographed them m the glassy to the despair of the servants.. "Let me cut out the pane," said the gentleman^ " and replace it with a modern glass, and see if your ghost does* not disappear." -He did so, and there has been nb trouble since. He carried.. away those ghosts with the ol^ , French plate glass. ■