Adventure | Science Fiction | Ghost stories | Poetry | Children | History

Book

Open Original Text

 the purity of a young girl's mind as to say leg to
her, No, no; I must bear it as best I can."

"Oh, I say! What is the matter with my going to speak to her and see
what she says? I will try to get the leg for you to try on, and if it is
yours you can give me hers, and I am sure she will be as glad as you. I
see she taps her own foot to the music, and I do not doubt that she is
as anxious to dance as can be, and she cannot on account of this
misfortune."

"If it could be so arranged that she would not know who it was that
asked the change, I would be willing for you to try. That is, on
condition that you will be as delicate as you possibly can, and we have
not much time to work in for as soon as those who like to dance have
enjoyed that pleasure we are to hold a short convention, and after that
we go outside. But, it would be a great comfort."

The young man sauntered toward the young lady and noticed that she tried
to hide the long leg and big foot behind her chair, and he felt
emboldened, and addressed her:

"Fair lady, I beg your pardon in advance for what I am about to say, and
I beg you to believe that I mean no disrespect, but as time presses and
there are a few more dances on the programme, I must tell you the story
of another's misfortune, so that you may understand the case."

Then he hastily told her the whole story of the lost leg, and by
watching her intently he felt sure that he was right, and finally he
asked:

"What would you suggest in order that those misplaced members might be
restored to their rightful owners?"

"Oh, sir, it is a terrible thing, and I really do not know what should be
done, other than that you should take the one I have and turn your back
and take it from behind you, and carry it so, covered with your coat,
and bring back mine in the same way, and manage so that no one shall see
the transfer."

"Young lady, you are as sensible as you are lovely, and it shall be done
as you say."

Saying that the young man threw off his coat and in a moment more had
lifted it with something in it and made his way to the ghost in the
corner waiting for him. He lost no time in dropping the offending leg as
crabs drop theirs when they like, and tried the other. As he did so he
cried joyfully:

"My friend, accept the thanks of a man who has nothing else to offer,
but please go back to that young lady and when she is settled please
offer her my thanks and hopes that she has suffered no inconvenience."

"I think it would be the fair thing if you asked her to dance with you
since she has been so long deprived on your account."

"I couldn't, I really couldn't! I will wait here until you come back, and
I beg you not to be long."

The young man hastened away on his important errand, and soon had the
satisfaction of knowing that the young lady was very grateful to have
her own long lost limb restored. She expressed herself so gracefully
that the young man thought what a pity it was that she was dead. On plea
of important business he left her, for he was afraid that she would
expect him to offer to dance with her, but almost before he reached the
ghost who was gleefully stamping his recovered leg, he saw her being led
out for a polka. And she showed as keen a gusto as the good-natured
ghost had with the pipe and the rest.

As soon as the young man returned the ghost who had now become quite
cheerful said:

"My dear young friend, what a burden you have lifted from my heart! You
have restored me my fine leg. What an outrage to permit any one to be so
maimed."

"Had you no friends to protect you against such treatment?"

"No, for they are all dead, too, and so could not help me. They all
lie in this churchyard, and probably will be left in peace, but if it
is in human power to get this land where they lie they like the rest
of us will have to make place for the living. The city will want the
ground, and then it will be, 'Come along old bones, get up and travel,
We need that ground to build on, and the dead have no rights beside the
living.'"

"It is a great wrong," said a ghost who up to now had not joined in the
conversation. "I will tell you a little of my experience, and that will
show how little we weigh in the balance with dollars. In early days I
lived in what was then the nucleus of Oakland, Cal. I had a little
sister, and she died and was buried in the first cemetery laid out in
that place. It was beautifully located on the banks of the estuary
leading to Merrit's Lake, and under the great and evergreen old oaks,
and there we left her to sleep. Scarcely a year had passed when a rich
man came and the only place in all that county to please him was that
little graveyard. He managed to get it for a residence, and all our dead
had to be moved. Another place was chosen at the head of the lake, and
they were all put there. I had married, and when my sister was removed
my first-born was laid there too. About ten years later that place had
grown too valuable to be given to the dead, and our dead were carried
off to the foot hills, and now I am told that the time is not far distant
when they will be taken on to the eternal Sierras. Now, my mother and
father and other members of my family all lie there, but there is no one
left to see that they are moved in a proper manner. I wish with all my
heart we had all been cremated. We should all have been just haunts and
not been obliged to drag old bones around, and run the risk of getting
them scattered from Dan to Beersheba."

"I don't mind my bones at all," said the gloomy ghost who was now quite
chipper, and he braced up and threw out his chest and smoothed his chin
and looked grand-as grand as the nature of the circumstances would
permit. "I used to be called a fine figure of a man."

The young man hastened to say that anybody with half an eye could see
that he was still, for no one else took the slightest notice of him, and
the young reporter was anxious to maintain the friendliest relations
with all the ghosts. Then the ghost whose peace of mind he had been
instrumental in saving, walked along with a stately stride in front of
the young lady whose small foot had caused him so much anguish of mind.
She had finished her dance by this time and had been sitting still. By
some occult wave of sympathy she sent a sentiment of gratefulness to
him, and in next to no time they were talking like old friends, but the
painful subject of the exchange of bones was carefully ignored.

The ghost who had spoken in favor of cremation sat down beside the young
man and seemed to wish to enter into conversation, and as the
good-natured ghost had gone off again and was talking at a lively rate
with some men who all had a sort of air about them which signaled them
as seafaring men, he thought it best to let the ghost talk. To that end
he listened intently. He continued his complaint:

"There are many more old and almost forgotten graveyards in this city,
just as there are in every place of any age at all, and as there are
still some relati

Previous Next