The Weber Literary Journal Sally's Ghost Alice Condie HAVE you heard that it was there last night again? That makes three nights in succession it's been seen," exclaimed Mrs. Lundy, the village gossip, as she deposited her goodly form on her neighbor's doorstep. Mrs. Hartley looked up from her work inquiringly, "What was there last night?" "Oh, I forgot you'd been away from town for a week. Well, you remember Sally Lunn?" Mrs. Lundy began in her favorite story-telling tone. "Her that died last spring of consumption. You know; she lived in that house down by Lunn's lane, where the old orchard and garden is. Well," she finished triumphantly, "she's come back and is haunting the old place." "Sally Lunn's come back?" "Yes Ma'm. Maybe you don't believe it, but it's true. Two days ago, when my John was comin' by there about half past eight at night, he saw a woman all in white walking around through the orchard. Sally, you know, always used to wear white. Believe me, he was scared when he come runnin' into the house a shouting, 'Ma! Oh Ma! I've seen a ghost'." "Oh, I think he must have just imagined he saw a ghost." "Yes, that's what we thought. We just laughed at him, but we couldn't change him." "Who else saw the ghost?" "Old Father Jacobs. You know him as lives down near the creek. He swears he seen Sally Lunn walking through the orchard the night after John seen her. 'Course I wouldn't a believed him, but last night the minister, when he was coming back from seeing old lady Brown, saw her again and you'd have to believe a minister." "Yes, I suppose you would besides I always did think that place looked so lonely and neglected." "You're right; it is. I don't think I'll ever be able to go by there again. It makes me creep to think of her wandering 20 The Weber Literary Journal around there. I don't see what the Lord's doin' to let folks come back to earth and haunt innocent people. But I s'pose it's because of our wickedness. There's not been much contribution handed in lately. Well, I must be goin'. I promised old Miss Larson I'd call on her; she's right poorly; I hope to goodness such unrighteous doin's don't continue long." But the "unrighteous doin's" did continue. Not the next night nor the next, because it was raining; but the third night, a warm May evening, the silent white form was again seen gliding through the orchard. The old place was certainly an ideal spot for a ghostly haunt. The apple trees, gnarled and rugged with age, were clothed in their first coat of green. Underneath them the grass carpeted the earth. Past the orchard was a deserted garden, run riot with early spring flowers; and beyond that was the low, tumbled down cottage where Sally Lunn had passed her days in solitude and had finally died all alone. On the sixth day after the ghost's initial appearance in the orchard, Mrs. Lundy heard such a startling piece of news that she had to rush over to tell her neighbor about before she could finish her morning's work. "Oh, Mrs. Hartley," she cried bursting in upon her astonished neighbor, "there's another ghost now." "Another?" "Yes, another; and it's a man." "How do you know?" "Bill Simmons told me. He was coming by there last night about ten o'clock and he saw what looked like a man and woman walking through the orchard. He said as soon as he saw them they vanished. Do you know who I think it is?" "No; who?" "Well not every one knows it but when Sally was young she had a lover who was a sailor. Just awhile before they was to be married he was drowned. He used to walk over from the navy station at Port Hudson to see her and they would stroll through the garden and orchard. That's who I think it is." Rightly, yet not correctly, she had guessed it. 21