A HAUNTED SCHOOLHOUSE.

Evening Star, Issue 3355, 20 November 1873, Page 3

A HAUNTED SCHOOLHOUSE.

The MerrlmarM ValUy VUUor says In Newburyport we have aschoolhonse that the School Committee have been forced to advertise tkS closed to visitors, because curious crowds waited within and without, to see the mysterious form of a ghost boy, who has been trotting around there for more than a year, seen frequently by the teacher who is not a spiritualist —and by most of the whole fifty pupils, who are too young (primary scholars) to mystify and deceive the people. The schoolhouse is a one-storey building that would be the last place in town for a spirit from any happy abode to wish to renew its childhood in. There is an entry to the building, where is a flight of stairs to the attic, and a window looking into the school room. Tte teacher’s desk brought her back to that window, where the pupils told her a strange boy was playing his tricks, sometimes putting his head up to the glass and other times looking in. They described him, and when seen he has always been the same in dress and appear ance. To verify statements, she changed her seat to face the window, and bye-and-hye the face appeared—Jack Frost upon the window pane. Not doubting but that it was really a boy, she took her “ ruler.” the emblem of her authority, and made for the entry, and there she found him standing quietly in the corner—one of the prettiest faces she had ever seen, with a sweet smile on his beautiful lips, and needing a kiss more than a blow. His body, dressed in neat white clothes, bore the appearance of one just past bis first decade of years. His hair was almost white—a little tow head ; his face was pale as death, and his eyes a sweet blue. His face was older than his years, and he had the appearance of wisdom beyond his age. She advanced to him, and then he dodged to the attic stairs. She followed—is now near enough to take hold of him—reached for him, but he is not there. He seemed to sink through the stairs, and where she would grasp his person her hand struck the floor. He was gone. Now we have a veritable ghost—what is to be done ? The police thought they could capture him. They arrested a lad as the author of all this commotion—the town through ; and he had his choice to confess or take his chance for the reform school The boy partially confessed ; but he was not punished, because his teacher and all the pupils and his parents knew that be was wot the strange boy that looked in at the window ; and the face continued to re-appear when he was away. ISext a carpenter was sent to nail up the passage to the attic, bub “if love laughs at locks” much more do ghosts. 'I he little tow- head even made more noise than before, hie turned the .attic into a carpenter’s shop, where he, too, sawed and pounded and nailed; and, as if to demonstrate the futility of human force to shut him out, he pub his head down through the ventilator

and took a survey of the school. Some of the children have been frightened, and one day one of them fainted ; but few of them are excited about it. The teacher Ins spoken to him, and he only laughed from his happy face. The children looked at him, whom not one of them ever saw before, and he returns their glances with love in his soft mild eyes ; but as yet he has not told us who he is, whence he came, or what his mission. This comes nearest to a real ghost—a daylight ghost—of anything we have had in this city fur years. —New York Times.