Show GHOST by CHICK SALE Q by public ledger inc service there Is an old house on an abandoned vermont farm which la Is the only place where I 1 have ever come across circumstances which seemed to me supernatural and unexplainable when I 1 was hunting in vermont for some pieces of early american furniture I 1 asked my escort a native of the place about an abandoned house illich we were passing more ilore than fifty years ago a family named benham had lived in the stone house lie fie related the family consisted of proctor benham his wife a former boston society girl and their twin sons upon these two handsome boys tile the family lavished their affections the second floor of the house was vas given entirely to the boys the children in the neighborhood loved to in cume come to the playroom they en led the boys their pleasure my friend when he be was a boy had played with the twins in their attic then one night the two boys disappeared and were seen no more it was thought they had drowned in a pool in a quarry back of the house half mad with grief the parents moved finally from the stone house with its quiet garret play oom and it became a truly aban boned vermont farm gathering about itself as the years progressed i reputation for being haunted all old houses and barns and hildings luil uIl dings interest me moreover I 1 vas intrigued by the story I 1 asked ny companion to take me lue into the louse to see the locale of the trag idy dy of other years As a storm vas ovas impending he agreed to seek shelter within the house bouse proved to be bare of furniture with one interesting ex es eption above tile the living room mantel which itself was partly torn away was an old oil portrait of two small boys painted directly on the smooth old plaster of the chimney itself it was a poor effort but the faces belled belied the apparent poverty of the painters talents they fairly plowed glowed with life and true flesh tones as they smiled out into the barren room where once they had brought such joy oy my ily friend told me the history of the painting fifty years before a wandering painter had visited the district begging for work painting tile the pictures 0 of children he preferred to paint on plaster rather than canvas my companion said that there had bad 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 after the benham tragedy the story fascinated me and I 1 insisted on climbing the stairs in the attic I 1 found rough boards contrived into a kind dad L of robbers den the crossbeam showed worn places where swing ropes had been attached As I 1 came doNn downstairs stairs I 1 saw it was dark and that the storm which had threatened was going to break my friend advised that we wait inside until after the storm the storm broke and I 1 lost sight of the facts which my friend told me I 1 in n my ensuing terror sitting together in the dark we heard beard the sound of feet on the floor of the playroom above us running feet stamping feet undoubtedly childrens feet above our astonished toni shed heads we hoard heard the creak of swing ropes and the noise of scuffling and wrestling as though several children were playing roughly and excitedly neither of us moved only once when a flash of lightning illumined tile the room momentarily I 1 was amazed to see that the chimney above the mantel was bare and white that there was no painted likeness of two children therel there 1 to my disordered imagination it now seemed that the hubbub above me increased to an almost unbearable pitch as though dozens of chil dren were playing there madly furiously riou rlou sly as though jealous of tile the passing hours and anxious to crowd into a brief time all the enjoyment they had missed for years 1 I dont know how my friend and I 1 got out of that house and into our car in the storm but we certainly did just that 1 I never returned to it my aly friend did but I 1 was as far away as a fast train could take tahe me ue he wrote me once about his return trip ile he said the painting on the chimney was there just as it had been for more than fifty years tears |