lot of company she slept on a bed in the garret. She got awake at night
and found the covers off the bed. She pulled 'em up and something
pulled them off. Then she lighted a candle, but there wasn't a thing
there. So she went back to bed and the same thing happened again; down
went the covers. She got frightened and ran down the stairs and slept
on the floor. But that spook was always a mystery. I used to have
shivers chasin' each other up and down my back so fast I didn't know
how to sit up hardly when she was tellin' them spook stories. But she
had one champion one about a man she knew who was walkin' along the
country road at night and something black shot up in front of him, and
when he tried to catch it and ran after it, he rolled into a fence, and
when he sat up, the spook was gone, but there was a great big hole by
the fence-post near him, and in the hole was a box of money. She could
explain that ghost; it was the spirit of the person who had buried the
money, and he had to help some person find it so that he could have
peace in the other world. Well, as I said, I was goin' along the road
on the way to see that girl, and it was about dark when I got to the
lane of her house. I was a little excited, for it was my first trial at
the courtin' business. Aunty Betz's spook stories made me kinda shaky
in the dark, so it's no wonder I jumped when something black ran across
the road and stood by the fence as I came along. I remembered her story
of the man who found the gold, and I thought I'd see whether I could
have such luck, so I ran to the black thing and made a grab--and--it
was a skunk! Well,"--after the laughter died down--"I didn't get any
gold, but I got something! I yelled, and the girl I started to call on
heard me and come to the door. I hadn't any better sense than to go up
to her. But before I could explain, the skunk's weapon told the tale.
'You clear out of here,' she hollered; 'who wants such a smell in the
house!' I cleared out, and when I got home Mom was in bed, but Pop was
readin' the paper in the kitchen. I opened the door. 'Clear out of