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Show TRUE GHOST STORY By CHICK SALE by Publlo Ledeer, Inc. WNU Sorvlc "My friend advised that we wait inside until after the storm. "The storm broke, and I lost sight of the facts which my friend told me, in my ensuing terror. "Sitting together In the dark, we heard the sound of feet on the floor of the playroom above us. Running Run-ning feet, stamping feet, undoubtedly undoubt-edly children's feet. Above our astonished as-tonished heads, we heard the creak of swing ropes and the noise of scuffling and wrestling, as though several children were playing, roughly rough-ly and excitedly. "Neither of us moved only once, when a Hash of lightning illumined the room momentarily. I was amazed to see that the chimney above the mantel was bare and white ; that there was no painted likeness of two children there I "To my disordered Imagination, It now seemed that the hubbub above me Increased to an almost unbearable unbear-able pitch as though dozens of children chil-dren were playing there, madly, furiously fu-riously ; as though jealous of the passing hours, and anxious to crowd into a brief time all the enjoyment they had missed for years. "I don't know how my friend and I got out of that house, and Into our car In the storm, but we certainly certain-ly did just that "I never returned to It My friend did, but I was as far away as a fast train could take me. "He wrote me once about his return re-turn trip. He said the painting on the chimney was there. Just as it had been for more than fifty years." There Is an old house on an ibandoned Vermont farm which is lie only place where 1 have ever me across circumstances which j teemed to me supernatural and un-usplainable. un-usplainable. "When I was hunting in Vermont or some pieces of early American urniture, I asked my escort, a naive na-ive of the place, about an aban-loned aban-loned house which we were passing. "More than fifty years ago a fam-ly fam-ly named Benham had lived in the :tone house, he related. The family :onsisted of Proctor Benham, his vife, a former Boston society girl, aid their twin sons. Upon these .wo handsome boys the family lav-shed lav-shed their affections. "The second floor of the house vas given entirely to the boys; the iiildren in the neighborhood loved come to the playroom, they en-rled en-rled the boys their pleasure. My Iriend, when he was a boy, had jlayed with the twins In their attic. "Then one night the two boys lisappeared and were seen no more, it was thought they had drowned n a pool In a quarry back of the louse. Half mad with grief, the parents moved finally from the stone louse with it3 quiet garret playroom, play-room, and It became a truly aban-loned aban-loned Vermont farm, gathering libout Itself, as the years progressed, 'i reputation for being haunted. "All old houses and barns and ulldings interest me. Moreover, I kbs intrigued by the story. I asked oy companion to take me into the louse to see the locale of the trag-riu trag-riu nf other vears. As a storm iivas Impending, he agreed to seek ihelter within. "The house proved to be bare of .'urniture, with one interesting ex-leption. ex-leption. Above the living-room mantel, man-tel, which itself was partly torn way, was an old oil portrait of two small boys, painted directly on the smooth old plaster of the chimney chim-ney itself. I "It was a poor effort, but the faces selied the apparent poverty of the painter's talents. They fairly glowed with life and true flesh tones as they Smiled out into the barren room where once they had brought such i iy- "My friend told me the history of the painting. Fifty years before a wandering painter had visited the district, begging for work painting the pictures of children. He preferred pre-ferred to paint on plaster rather than canvas. "My companion said that there had been an ugly rumor to the effect that every family in which the tramp painter was admitted and painted a portrait, had later suffered the loss of a child; this rumor grew alter the Benham tragedy. "The story fascinated me, and I insisted on climbing the stairs. In the attic I found rough boards contrived con-trived into a kind of robbers' den; the crossbeam showed worn places where swing ropes had been attached. at-tached. "As I came downstairs, I saw It was dark, and that the storm which had threatened was going to break. |