28 CHRISTMAS IN AMERICA.

“The children, who were so highly excited over Si’s narra-
tive that they hardly dared to breathe, clung to one another
with trembling hands as the dog sent up his piercing cry.
Even Si himself started. The dog seemed listening.

“The candle was burning well. The children now watched
it in dead silence.

«A half-hour passed. The candle was burning within an
inch of the quill, and all eyes were bent upon it. If the candle
‘sputtered,’ the excitement became intense. ‘I think it will go
off in ten minutes now,’ said my grandmother.

“There was a noise in the yard. All heard it distinctly.
The dog dashed round the room, howled, and stopped to listen
at the door.

“ People who relate so-called ghost stories are often cowardly,
and it is usually a cowardly nature that seeks to frighten chil-
dren. Si Sloan was no exception to the rule.

“ The excitement of the dog at once affected Silas. His tall,
thin form moved about the room cautiously and mysteriously.
He had a way of spreading apart his fingers when he was
frightened, and his fingers were well apart now.

“ A noise in the yard at night was not an uncommon thing,
but the peculiar cry of the dog and the excited state of the
company caused this to be noticed. My grandmother arose at
last, and amid dead silence opened the shutter.

“<T think that there is some one in the cider-mill,’ said she.

“She looked toward the candle, and, feeling confident that
some minutes would elapse before the explosion, she left the
room, and went upstairs, and there looked from the window.

“ From the window she could see in the moonlight Mount
Hope, where Philip had so recently been killed, and also the
arm of the bay, where Wetamoo had perished. She could see
the bay itself. and must have remembered the lights that a