home. I made my visit, which was the first of many,
and a strange friendship began and developed be-
tween the woman of the town and the little girl she
loved. Some of those visits I remember as vividly
as if I had made them yesterday. There was never
the slightest suggestion during any of them of things
I should not see or hear, for while I was with her
my hostess became a child again, and we played
together like children. She had wonderful toys for
me, and pictures and books; but the thing I loved
best of all and played with for hours was a little
stuffed hen which she told me had been her dearest
treasure when she was a child at home. She had
also a stuffed puppy, and she once mentioned that
those two things alone were left of her life as
a little girl. Besides the toys and books and pic-
tures, she gave me ice-cream and cake, and told me
fairy-tales. She had a wonderful understanding of
what a child likes. There were half a dozen women
in the house with her, but I saw none of them nor
any of the men who came.

Once, when we had become very good friends
indeed and my early shyness had departed, I
found courage to ask her where the ghost was--
the ghost that haunted her house. I can still see
the look in her eyes as they met mine. She told
me the ghost lived in her heart, and that she did
not like to talk about it, and that we must not
speak of it again. After that I never mentioned it,