s room. She sat down in a rocking
chair, her nervous hands fidgeting in her lap. Spirits keep their
promises best in the dark, and she had not lighted a lamp. Moonbeams
fell through the window, a ladder of light, upon which a spirit might
well descend to earth. The clock in the dining-room struck twelve. The
dog howled under the apple tree.

"Lewson, are you here?"

Two eggs on a shelf caught the light of the moon. She started. Surely,
they were not there a moment ago. Was the old man robbing hens' nests in
the spiritual world? A breeze stirred, and there was a whisper of
drapery at the window.

"Lewson, is that you?"

She glanced again at the eggs. Hadn't they moved? A midnight cock crew,
and she started. Why should he crow just as she glanced at the eggs? She
waited.

"Lewson, oh, Lewson! Do you hear me? Don't you remember your promise?
Come, now, don't treat me this way. You know how hard it was for me to
believe in your doctrine. You know how I've tried to have some sort of
religion. And now, please don't knock down all the props. Haven't I been
kind to you? Didn't I take you when nobody else would? Then help me,
Lewson. Give me something to cling to. Just say one word--just
one--somethin' to let me know you have told the truth. I want the truth,
that's all I want, Lewson. You haven't come. No, you haven't, and you
needn't say you have. You can't come, and you know it. Well, I'm goin'
now. Are you comin'? No, you ain't. You are an old fraud, that's what
you are." She flounced out upon the veranda, and said to Milford: "Go to
bed. There never was a bigger liar than that old fool."

CHAPTER V.

NEEDED HIS SPIRITUAL HELP.

Early the next morning, before the clanging bell had shattered the
boarder's dream, the old woman hastened to Milford's cottage. When she
surprised him at breakfast, he thought that possibly the old man might
have called at some time during the night, and that she had come to
bring the good news, but this early hope was killed by the darkness of
her brow. "I've come over to tell you that if ever you say a word about
what happened last night, I'll drive you out of the county," she said,
her lips parted and her teeth sharp-set.

"Why, nothing did happen," he replied with a laugh.

"No, you bet! But don't you ever dare to say that I expected anythin' to
happen. I won't allow any old man, dead or alive, to make a monkey of
me. Well, I'll eat breakfast with you. What, is this all you'