HOW I LAID A GHOST By R. J. !<«• «s theotberapartmenteon the»«melloori| ^.AJ^T) JHE WORST IS YET TO COME At the end of wb(ch were the stairs ] Iradtac to tke upiwr atory. At a glance we could see that thv| idea' lUgf e«te<l was impracticable, and It waa al>aadoned wUbout further aearch. We visited all d>« room*. In each of which I left a small light burning, saw Ooe mornlnc I received a messag* from a friend aakin* me to meet, him that the window* were securely faa- in the evening, his family having been tened, end went back to make an In- recently disturbed by certain mys- spectlon of the ground floor. tmeiaaa noises, rospecttng which he ', All being satisfactory, and Mr. H. wished te ask my advice. I watted up- assured that I was not needing any- on hlra at the time appointed, when he thing e',se, be handed me the kays, told me he had only been in the bouae and. wishing me su<-ce8s In my under- about a week, having but recently pur- 1 Uklng. bade me "goodnight," and left ohased it from Its former occupant. ' me alone to meet the ghost. Nothing strange had been noticed for 1 After his departure, my first bust- the first night or two, but about the nese was to make the policeman on third morning his wife waa aroused duty In the neighborhood acquainted early from her sleep by a noise as if , with the circumstances of the case, aome one was In pain. {and 8ot bim to call in two or three Thinking it waa, prbaps, one of the times during the night, ae It might Children ill. he went to their room, but be I should require sonie assistance. they were sound asleep; neither did | Having done this, and regaled my- It proceed from the servants' apart- ments. On returning he found his wife greatly terrified at the presence self with the refreshments provided, I selected a volume from the book-case and repaired to the haunted chamber. It was the first week In September, and the day had been very warm, so I threw one of the windows open, drew an easy-chair to the table, both of which had been brought in tor my con- of some one In the room She had not see» anything, but had heard the rustling as of a lady's drees. After waiting for a few moments In silence, he heard the same noise, which sounded to him as if a female lenience, and cominen(*d the perusal Tad parsed from the dressing-room, °"°ybo°k ' depended on the lights through their own, and along the cor- fo/«"fficient warmth In the cool hours ridor to the stairs. There was nothing "' the mornmg, as the hea of a fire risible, but the sweeping of the dress p^f^t induce me to sleep while I was ly audible. In vain did he search the house, for he could find no explanation of his mysterious phenomenon, until, at last, •very much against his will, he was oompelled to acknowledge that, If the | ^^^ I had been reading about half an hour when my attention waa attracted by a low. plaintiff moan, several times repeated. It sounded as if It proceed- ed from a wardrobe standing in a re- cess betw^een the chimney, and win- house was not exactly haunted, there was something he could not make out. This conviction had been strengthen- ed the next day by one of the servants calling his attention to a large stain on one of the floors at the top of the â- house, having the appearance of blood, of which a great quantity must have heen spilled, as it formed a large patch near the centre, and ran in several di- rections toward the side of the room. Unlike most cases of ghosts- he had heard of. the noises continued In the day-time as well as night; and so frightened were the domestics at the disturbance that it was with difficulty they could be induced to remain In the place after he had sent his wife and -children away. We went over the house together, and carefully inspected the various rooms â€" particularly the one In which the stain appeared, and the bed-room where most of the noises were heard. After we had completed our survey he 4Uiked me If I could offer any opinion «• to the cause of the annoyance. "Not unless I hear It," I answered. "I have in several cases succeeded In {ratting a stop to such things, and. It you are willing, I will spend a night here, after which I may, perhaps, be in a position to say something more about it." "It you think you can in any way give u.^ peace and quiet." said he, "the house with ail it contains is at your service, because if it should get abroad that It is 'haunted,' its value to me will be nil, for I cannot live here myself, and how could I expect others?" "Do you know it the former occu- pier was In any way disturbd?" "He says not." "How long did he live here?" "Some five or six years, I believe." "Do you know whether there have been any complaints from any one be- fore he came?" "No." "Have you said anything to him "•bout the blood?" "I asked him if be had seen It; but he knew nothing whatsoever about it." "Did you show It to him?" "No; he said he would call in some time and have a look at it." "Can you make arrangements for mo to be alone in the house to-morrow night?" "At what time?" "The whole night, from â€" let me â- eel I will be bere'at about eight O'clock." "And do you mean to stay in the house all night by yourself?" "Yes! Why not? If there were more than one, the ghost might be afraid to show itself." "1 would rather it be you than I, then. But, it you wish it, you shall have it so." Accordingly, at the time appointed on the following evei^ng, I found Mr. H. hiui.«elf in the house. The ser- Tant»>^{ter providing everything for my comfort during my watch, had taken their departure a short time be- fore. Children in the Dark. (Tbrughout the South of France on All Soul's Eve every grave is marked by a lighted lantern). i The hillside graveviird aii the night I Rock« with a flickering sheen of light, Because the living people grace With candles every resting-place. I wonder if the weary men That lie there waken up again .And grunvb:*, on their couches deep, Because the light disturbs their sleep. Thinking, for Just a moment, they Must work through yet another day. I wonder if the women there. With dust of lilies in their hair, Keep tight their lids against the gleam Lest it should drive away Uieir dream. But I am sure that there are those To whom the lantern-candle glows With all the gladness of a rose; The little children that are dead. They fee! they have been long abed; The dear, dear children greet each si;3rk With smiles, tor children dread the dark. â€" Reginald Wright Kauffman. I went very silentlj' to the spot and placed my ear against tlie door. Yes! it certainly came frm there. L turned I have not the least hesitation in say- ing that you would not have attached any Importance to the atain on the floor in the upper room, which I find the key and opened it, but discovered | °°7 '^f « '° the upsetting of a bottle nothing. I moved the wardrobe a little °} fu'-n^ufs Pol'sf. and not to any mur- forward at one end to see if there was anything at the back. No! Perhaps It came from the next room, ao I made my way there, but der you had an Idea had been com- mitted. This was the point upon which I was wanting information and which I have satisfactorily proved. As ! to the cause of the noises, as the mom- after one unsuc- "Invest" in Recreation. Mrs. Nina Moore Jamleson, the well known writer, who was one of the speakers In the Women's Building at the Canadian National Exhibition, made a striking appeal to parents to recognize the importance of right play in the lives of their children. "I wish you would all make time to with like result. In fact. I could not j even hear the sound. , , , . ^ j,- ,^ , â- - Icameback, but in my absence, the '^f^^"'-«°'^«^^P^*°^'='=°?'">^«P^'^- 1 where the threshers are given their ing was breaking 3 discover It, I open- ed the door of the grate in your room, I Words That Make Us Wonder. Have you ever wondered how some of the qu-eer words and expressions we use to-day first came into the lang- uage? The expres.sion "raining cats and dogs" originated in the days when sea- men used to refer to waves on the water before a storm as "cat's-pawa," whilst the dog has always been regard- ed in nortliern mythologj- as symbolic of wind. Consequently, when a heavy rainatorm was acccmpaaied by high winds, sailors would say "it was com- ir<; down cats and dogs." We shall use the expression "big wig," although these articles are a fas- hion of the past. In other days, how- provide recreation for your boys and ever, a person's importance waa girls," said the speaker. "In almost judged by the size of the wig he wore. I every farm house there is a room and therefore the highest in the land believed, but. in veritable tiesh and .saucer of water hnd stme bread, which i was greedily devoured, and after a H. "All, madam," I replied. "I can as- sure you that is how I laid the ghost." moaning had ceased ; ao, with nothing to guide me, I had to watt for Its re- currence before I could attempt any discoveiT. I had determined to pass the mid- night hour in the room where the blood had been found, and just before twelve laid my book aside and repair- ed to that apartment, which was im- mediately overhead. After waiting half an hour, I took a turn through the house and finally came back to my old quarters, having met with no success. Another hour passed, and still no re- sult. I began to think the haunting was over for the night, and my watch- ing had ended in failure, but, just as the morning was breaking, the same cry reached my ear, accompanied by a sound which might fitly be described as the i-ustling of a dress. StHl it proceeded from the same ' place, and again I examined the ward- robe. Then I opened the door at the top of the grate communicating with the chimney, to see if anything was there. No, noUiing was to be seen. 'â- Now it sounded as it in the room above, but a journey there proved as ' fruitless as before. i When returning, however, the noise seemed nearer and louder than I had heard it. as though the ghost was in the room I had recently left, and then ' I remembered Mr. H. had told me itj uiack Easily Moved, was in the early morning his wife had ; 1st Br.iuos Man â€" "So. we can't been finst alarmed. I hold a candle to the kind of goods you Very quietly I reached the foot of! sell? Must be easy to keep your stock the stairs and passed along to the door, ! moving then?" keeping on the opposite side of the ] 2nd Dittoâ€" "Would be if you held a corridor, so as to shield my.self as candle to it much as possible by avoiding the glare j of the lights. Still there was nothing visible. I entered the room, and could dis- tinctly hear the moaning, but the ghost did not appear. I turned out the lights and then in a few moments saw some- thing come from the bottom of the bed towards the door. Slowly it moved aud made no noise but the low, pitiful wall, as though in grer.t trouble. I spoke, and immediately it atood still and looked round as though im- ploring my help, but spoke not. I ap- proached, but it stood its ground, and allowed me even to touch It. We were neither of us afraid of the other. In less than half an hour I had learned a*^ much as I could of its sad story, having, in the meantime minis- tered to its comfort as far as I then could, after which It vanished from my sight never more to haunt that house. Elarly in the morning Mr. H. an- nounced himself by a good pull at the dinner. Now any room that is big and while I was up stairs, the ghost enough to hold tables at which sixteen descended the chimney, where it had ^^^gry men are fed, U large eaeugh been confined from the commencement : to be a social centre for the family, of your alarm, and when I returned to j ^^^^^^ ^^e two kinds of entertainment, the room I found, not the shadowy jjjg j^j^^ y^^ ^uy for a dollar and the were known to the less fortunate as â- 'big wigs." "Pin-money" ia an expression that serves to remind us of the days when pins were expensive, and husbands al- lowed their wives special sums for their purchase. Later on the expres ghost of the human form, as you had ^j^^ y^^ g^j ;„ nothing, and the last ' slon waa applied to a wife's pocket- ; painful The agonv Is a long way the be^st. Clean out the The Patting of Wild Anumk. The picture that preteuti itaelf to moat mindti at the idea of the death of wild animals is one of violence and agonized pain. As a matter of fact, few ideas are more erroneous. IMost Willi aiijmals die quietly. Both animals and bird.- dislike any. thing unusual: they will not tolerate j the deformed, maimed or crippled, so I that when an animal teels any unusual 'â- symptoms, instinct ui.'.kei him ateal [ away from his fellows. He goes aa ' far a« i>Qisib!e, and then rests in aa ! retired a place aa he can find. .\ lethar- : glc feeling comes over him, and be I closes his eyes in sleep. He has no I fear of not awaking: any image that ' might croffl his elementary sense of memory would be of waking as be baa always done hitherto. Birds in whom the tide of life is I running low often tly out to sea, and close their eyes in la.sting sleep be- fore their tired bodies touch the ; water. ! Even captive bred canaries feel thte primeval impulse to fly away at the end: they will flutter restlessly agalnat the bars of their cage one day. and the next morning ycu will find them "asleep." Most birds of prey have their own hunting grounds and do not ! poach on their fellows' ground. I An eagle had long been known round : about a certain mountainside. One i day he was seen to be sailing down- i wards on outstretched wing:-, but hla head drooped unusually, as if it were too heavy for a tired body. Lower and lower he sailed, dropping slowly at last into a quiet wood. There he was found the next day by a boy who ba(f watched him tall. .\ bird-lover once noticed a llttl* songster sittting silently on a frond of evergreen over a little stream. He was old. for his feathera were streaked with grey and he had wrinkled scales on his feet. He showed no fear of the man, who often visited the place: pre- sently he settled on his finger and cloeed his eyes. He took a drop ot water from a finger as if glad of the friendly action, and then the man put him back on the evergreen. .A day later the man saw him hang- ing from a spruce root, his feet holding on firmly, his beak touching the water, pulte dead â€" asleep and at peace. There are. of course, tragedies in animal lives; the lion and the deer, the fas and the mouse, tlie hawk and the sparrow. But w« are wrong in imagin- ing violent deaths of this type to be is mental, and oc- blood, I beheldâ€" a pigeon! I gave It a ; ^j^ty pond or stream and see that it gets no further pollution and have an old swimmin' hole. Several dirty growing stronger, and i j^jjjg ^^^j. „g ^^^^ ^een cleaned up, a desire to be free, I . ^nd now, when I miss the soap from short time manifesting opened the window and it escaped." | the kitchen sink, and the towel from They looked at me in astonishment ; ^^^ ^^^.jj j j^q^ that some boys are , as I finished my story, and could having the time of their lives. Those scarcely believe that such a trifle had : p^^^g ^ju ^e rinks in the winter and caused them so much alarm. . ^^en it will be 'Mother, can we have "And is that really all?" asked Mrs. • ^^e honse and scraper to clear off the money. Another word that baa an Interest- ing origin ia "hanicap." This is prob- ably derived from "hand in the cap." as in former times it was the custom to draw lots from a hat or cap. curs before the attack, when we suf- fer in anticipation. In other words, W8 suffer because of our brains. The majority of the animals, how- ever, pa.ss In natural sleep. â€" Ernest Clarke. -we sell gasoline.' Below the Belt. She was newly engaged, and was confiding in her dearest friend. "Do you know, dear," she said, "Tom and I understand each other perfectly. He tells me everything he knows, and I tell him everything I know, too." "Really." exclaimed the friend in sarcastic tone^. ''And don't you some- times And the silence rather oppres- sive?" The total number of typhoid cases during the Great War was less than the deaths from that disease during the Boer War. jsnow?' and I'll say, as usual, 'Go and j ask your Dad.' And the next thing 1 1 will hear will be, 'Dad, mother thinks I we can have the horse and scraper to clear off the pond." After a while I will miss their father and enquiring will be told that he, too, has gone to the pond. At night the young people ?f the neighborhood will gather, and someone will build a /ire and roast sausages â€" or smoke them â€" it's all the ~ame to them â€" and I will take them down a kettle of cocoa. It will all be simple, but it will be a great pleasure. Then there Is dancing â€" the room that does for the threshers will do for the dancers. It is time that the ordinary pleasures were not considered as be- ', ing outside the farm life, .•^s to the radio â€" It will not only keep us from ' isolation, it will give us a vision of the i world beyond our own horizon." I Mrs. Jamleson urged that both boys and gir!.s be given an opportunity to earn their living on the home farm. "A thousand occupations are now open to girls," she said. "If a girl can live at h^;me and at the s»-me time be inde- pendent, she has achieved the ideal form of living. She will be better off and the home will be better off for having her there." portant then thai its health be maiutalned. -V word to sign reads "Dorchester" and the side parents: Are vour children free from signs "Ashmont and Milton." "Does frequent colds, enlarged tonsils, aiien- this car go to Dorchester?" ""ies, oids. decaying teeth? These are .-eri- lady; aret right on." "Are you sure it ^^g hindrances to their health. Are does?" "Yes, lady: get right on.",,hov fvoo fr,.i;i evestraln? Do they Here Is said to be one of the cluest homes in Scurboro. Ontario, which has been suinding for over 100 years. For many years it was used as a school house tor the children of pioneers. School ChUdren smd Their Health. Hurrah: School Is in full swing child. Especially so. in the case of non-.-Vnglo-Saxon mothers. Thua they will come to understand that thescbo<^ fioctor is trying to help their child. again! And what of the health of the, .^^^^ jhe moUiers' intelligent co-opera- boys and girls? "Keep a child robust} ^i^r^ jg needed to attain tlie best re- and sound in body until he is eighteen" i suits. gay medical experts, "and the chances j During ,-chool age there are aden- aro be will remain so throughout life." On a Boston street car the front 'But ?" "Ye.s, lady: get right on.",,hey f,ee fr ; it savs '.\shmont and Milton' on ),.„. â€"-.no hear well ' the side." "We ain't going sideways ^^j ,j„ji, lady: get right on." bell, being anxiouo to know the result i you heard anything further | "' â„¢>' labors. I told him I had seen the ghost, and having learned its story, had succeed- ed in laying ir; but I could not give then a full explanation, inasmuch as! there were still one or two point&.,up-i on which 1 neeJe i to be satisfied. I ! promised, however, that In the course' of a week I would tell him all I knew. J ! Before that time bad expired, Mrs. | H. and the children returned home. and had almost overcome the alarm the ghost had caused them, but were still very impatient for mo to go and fell them what I had discovered. At last the day arrived, and I met Mr. and Mrs. H. and their two eldest ctiitdren. They flrt-t assured me. on their part, that thy had not heard the least dis- ;urhar.c<? .-Ince I had left the house, "Have since I was here?" "Yes, several times during the day; but the uoise is not nearly so loud as It was at first. I have been wondering whether any one can 'oe confined in that room secretly. I have heard of people having been built in recesses alive, and the moaning seems to be like one gradually growing weaker, and 'Jiat would account for ua hearing the lolees ill the daytime as well as at light." '•We ;ii<*y soon ascertain If such a tWng has been done," t replied, "by Making a careful examination of the room, tc see whether there Is space tor the larryiDg out of such a pur- pose." We went up to the room, which was situated at the front of the house. At one cu.i nj' it was the dres«lng-rcom, ' neither by day nor night. already uu-iitioced. at the other w»,s a 1 "Then," 1 said, "I will give you my second be.i-rcoto, a=J along the side of story, which is very short, indeed. Had W i'O tb« roni^AT communicating with H not been tor the noises in your room. .\iter five years of service, ono of the \eteran* ol . .<.â- i.j.iaca r'aris pas- senger air ,'ervice has been retired. The gre.il plane, wtoi-ch is liie oldest on the route, was giv«n a funeral ceremony at Croydon recently. .\re they sound in body If not. then In school they I lose a golden opportunity. i i "Canada a Land of Opportunities!" | we .say, and yet in this land are we ; breeding a race that shows appalling ! signs of deterioration? Statistics I show an average of one phys cal de- : feet for each school child in the I Chited States. Fully twenty-five per ' cent, of the nation's children are be- , low par. How Is it with Canada? .\re your children under-weight? Being i underweight does not necessarily I mean, being undernourished. Our schools aim at wholesome citlzeivhip. . and whether your boy goes into profes- sional life or indus^trial life, sound ' health is essential to h!s .^ucce-^s. What then can we do to make our boy and girls lit for the w;;rk of life? Medical exaniin.»ticn in the schcoi is not a fad. It is based on medical research and confirmed by experience. When the war brok" out. over twenty- live per cent, of our boys were physi- cally unfit. Wp un:.-t not re;!pat that neglect to the rising gcnetafiin Sys- tematic medical supervision must be .!;ivcn to our children during the ycur.-; they are at school. Care^ai medical examination should be gi,ven every Child entering the school. .\nd the mother .?hou!dJ>e pve-f'nt to hear what the doctor has to say. ;;nd ia turn to a.'X queations tor the benefit of the of difficulty. oids and diseased tonsils to be watch- ed. There are earaches and eye- strains to be relieved, and teeth to b« treated. There arc skin and .icalp dis- eases, spinal curve and we.ik feet, all of which can be helped and corrected if treated in time. A delicate child la no longer looked upon with pride. Ia .<o far as we are e;iger to be healtby, ashamed to be unhealthy, we are awake lo ll;e ideal of our generation. What of the child's teeth? If teeth are !c.-f. fcod cannot be chewed, if they are defeclive. disease germs lodge in them, if teeth and gums are diseased, poison invades the system and undermines the health. The chll4 suffers pain, aud no one can be at hi* Le.st mentally or physically while su^ fering. What of your child's sight an4 hearing? Eye-straifl or defeotiT* vision may cause irritability, head- aches, nausea, loss of appetite, not In^ frequently blindneea. .And deafness, starting wiih adenoids, hardening wax cr a ccltf, may beocnio impossible to reni£.ly. unless taken tt the beginning. Is your child to bo under a bandlcapT Kye and ear defects are In a lars* 'nt><<sur<> le-tonsiWe for inattentive- ness. bad disciplino and failure to b» i:ro!noteu. It all ccnies to this. We consider .:,n- reputation lost if our young peopl* ( omo from our schools Illiterate. Jm -u- reputation secure if they com* from our schoo's with needless physi. cal dcfcc's and handicaps. Let every I)oy and girl in Canada be given % chance to be p!iyi,<caily st^-^ng. - .;.- â€" The path t« fame ru.T over the hit ^ -/-fr.-^ .A • i -. - -SJtv.-*««*««3*