Rensselaer Republican, Volume 26, Number 20, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 11 January 1894 — MY ONLY GHOST. [ARTICLE]

MY ONLY GHOST.

New York New*. ~ “Never allow anyone to promise to appear to you When he dies,” sa -, d Tillbury, junior, to Young Gilbert. “Why not?" askgd Gilbert. “He couldn’t, you know.” “Well, I don’t know about that,” said Tillbury. “Did I ever tell you about Patterson?” ‘ ‘No. ” _ . “Well, thinking of. that made me speak. Patterson and I were great friends, boarded with the same party, loaned one another money, introduced each other to pretty girls and all that. Regular chums. “He was one of those fellows that investigate everything, atfd had come to be quite a sort of amateur spiritualist. “When he was at the height of it, he coaxed me to promise him that if I died first, I’d .appear to him as a ghost, you know, and if he died, he vowed he’d come to me at once “We took the vow and Patterson always-alluded to it when we took our smoke together the last thing before going to bed. He had a presentiment that he would die a sudden death by accident. . “So time went on. We were just as good friends as ever. One night when I went home to dinner and didn’t find him, I felt surprised. “When he did not come in through the evening, I was more astonished still; but a man may be detained, of course without any accident happening to him, and I retired, expecting him to turn up all right in the morning. “But his chair was empty at the breakfast table, and Mrs. Baxter, with a very long face, asked me if I had heard Mr. Patterson speak of going anywhere suddenly. “I told’ the old lady I knew nothing about it, and thatday went down to Patterson’s place of business. They hadn’t seen him, either. They thoiight he was ill.—“He wasn’t the kind of man to run away with funds or anything of that sort, and I began to feel afraid that the presentiment had come true at last. “I went to my bedroom early but I could not sleep. I was very fond of Patterson and —very anxious. Then, too, that vow which we had taken did not present itself in an agreeable light under the circumstances. - “I flung myself upon my bed but I left the light burning as a sort of protection. Then I began to look over the daily paper. There were accidents enough, but I could not adapt one of them to my friend’s case. “I was getting a little drowsy and a little more comfortable when — crash, smash, clink —down from the wall tumbled Patterson’s photograph which he had presented to me only a week before. “That finished me. I shivered as if I had the ague. I had no doubt of Patterson's awful fall. Would he also come in person? “All in a cold perspiration, I stared into the corners of the room, but I saw nothing, and after awhile I fell asleep, to dream that I went to the morgue and found Patterson there; that I saw him the victim of a steamboat explosion; that I was fishing and something dragged at my hook, and —oh, good heavens! —it was Patterson. “Then I was in a dark street and straight before me two fellows crept after a man. Somehow I knew it was Patterson. “The light still burned. I was as wide awake as you are at this minute, and I saw the door at the front of the bed begin to move slowly. It opened wider and wider, and at last a figure glided in. “It was dressed in a garment of no h,uman fashion —a yellow-white drapery that covered the whole figure —but it had Patterson’s face, mustache and hair. It did not look at me, but it came nearer and nearer, and passed quite around my bed out of sight. “Its ghostly horrible appearance, shook my very soul. Patterson, my dear old friend, had returned from the world of death to the world of life, to tell me what his fate had been. “I summoned all my courage. “ ‘My dear old fellow,’ said I faintly, ‘tell me what I can do for you.’ “ ‘Where the duece do you keep your matches?” “ ‘Confound it, Patterson. Is that you?' said I. “ ‘Yes,’ said he. “ ‘What is that rig for,’ said I. “ ‘O,’ said he, ‘I was in dishabille, and lest 1 should meet some one, I put on a blanket.’ “ ‘Where have you been,’ said I. “ ‘O, I heard the bell ring in the night,’ said he, ‘and stuck my head out of the window. It was a telegram from home for me, Grandfather was taken ill! So I had only time tc pack some linen and start by the early train. Thought I wouldn't wake any one. He’s better, and here I am. Ah, here are the matches!" “And so the only ghost I ever saw, or ever expect to see, departed."