An Odd Ghost Story

Miss Emüy Kingsley, a most respectable maiden lady, who lives in a dainty little flat on Throop avenue, near Hancock street, Brooklyn, is being pursued by the outraged ghost of a Germán grocery boy. Miss Kingsley has a snug little fortune, and for years she has maintained an independent establishment with the aid of a dignified colored person named Martha. As Miss Kingsley and Martha never kept late hours nor gave card parties, they led, on the whole, a very happy if uneventful, existence, until witbin the past year. Then the "hant" came into their lives. Fif teen months ago Miss Kingsley was living in a flat on Madison street, Brooklyn. Most of her supplies in the provisión line were drawn from a corner grocery in the neighborhood and delivered by a little Germán grocery boy. He was a jolly fat chap, with a stupid face and prodigionsly red cheeks, f uil blue eyes and hair that gained him the title of "cottontop" with all the children of the neighborhood. HIS BOSS CAIXED HIM "SHAWLEY." His trips to Miss Kingsley's flat were a neverending sourceof delight to "Shawley," whose correct name, by the way, was Karl. Libe many other maiden ladies, Miss Kingsley detested children, and though "Shawley" did the work of three or fourmen,still, on account of his size, and particularly on account of hia actions, he was nothing but an intensely disagreeable boy in the eyes of "die alte jungfrau," as she was known at "Shawley's" store. One day, while the poor lady was suffering from a particularly bad stat of nervousness, "Shawley" came thumpmg up the stairway with a big basketful of potatoes f or the Bangsley household. He had been told scores of times to send his goods up by the dumbwaiter; but, like a true grocery boy, he did just the opjx site, though it cansed him a good deal of extra trouble. With an exclamation of rage Miss Kingsley flew out into the hall just in time to see the boy mounting ihe last step. Startled by the sudden appeu-rance of his angry customer, and co:npletely taken by surprise, "Shawl; 7" stumbled and, losing his hold, tumbled down the stairs, with the big basket on top of him. Miss Kingsley, gnmly observing that it served him right, bounced back into her sitting rooms. As for "Shawley," he lay wonderfully still for a Germán grocery boy. It was dark in the hall, otherwise it might have been seen that his usually red cheeks had very suddenly lost all their color. After a few minutes, however, during which the people on the floor stood by laughing, "Shawley" managed to get up. He gathered in as man y of his potatoes as he could find, though it gave him a queer pain to stoop, and then he tried to carry the basket up again. But he couldn't. HAUNTED BT THE BOY. So he ieft it where it was, and, still with that queer pain which almost made him cry with every step, he slowly walked back to the store. Next day it was said that "Shawley" was sick in bed, and a week later a hearse dróve up to the side door back of the grocery and carried the little "cottontop" away to the Lutheran cemetery. Miss Kingsley, who is a thoroughly good hearted lady, was inexpressibly shocked. And then came the "hant." Not at midnight, nor even after dark, but in broad daylight. Every grocery boy who delivered her groceries was a living imago of "Shawley." They called themselves "Ernest" and "Yake" and "Hiney" and "Willie," and they all smiled at Miss Kingsley's startled looks when she first saw them, but the good lady knew that they were all "Shawley." At first Martha waxed pathetioally earnest in trying to dissuade her mistress from believing in this illusion. The doctor found that his patiënt was suffering from hysterical mania, caused by incessant worrying over poor "Shawley's" death. In tliis state it was not unnatural that she should imagine herself haunted by the appearance of the other grocery boys, who generally resemble one another as closely as two peas in a pod. The doctor, like Miss Kingsley's friends, tried to show her that she was deceived by this resemblance, but so f ar he hasnotsucceeded, and unless a change comes soon he will order his patiënt