Mrs . John Emerson , sitting with her needlework beside the window , looked out and saw Mrs . Rhoda Meserve coming down the street , and knew at once by the trend of her steps and the cant of her head that she meditated turning in at her gate . She also knew by a certain something about her general carriage - a thrusting forward of the neck , a bustling hitch of the shoulders - that she had important news . Rhoda Meserve always had the news as soon as the news was in being , and generally Mrs . John Emerson was the first to whom she imparted it . The two women had been friends ever since Mrs . Meserve had married Simon Meserve and come to the village to live . Mrs . Meserve was a pretty woman , moving with graceful flirts of ruffling skirts ; her clear - cut , nervous face , as delicately tinted as a shell , looked brightly from the plumy brim of a black hat at Mrs . Emerson in the window . Mrs . Emerson was glad to see her coming . She returned the greeting with enthusiasm , then rose hurriedly , ran into the cold parlour and brought out one of the best rocking - chairs . She was just in time , after drawing it up beside the opposite window , to greet her friend at the door . " Good - afternoon , " said she . " I declare , I 'm real glad to see you . I 've been alone all day . John went to the city this morning . I thought of coming over to your house this afternoon , but I couldn 't bring my sewing very well . I am putting the ruffles on my new black dress skirt . " " I 'm real glad you did , " repeated Mrs . Emerson . " Take your things right off . Here , I 'll put them on my bed in the bedroom . Take the rocking - chair . " " I rather guess it is . It takes me a week every minute I can get to make one . I wish those that bought such things for twenty - five cents had to make them . Guess they 'd sing another song . Well , I suppose I oughtn 't to complain as long as it is for the Lord , but sometimes it does seem as if the Lord didn 't get much out of it . " The two women rocked and sewed and crocheted in silence for two or three minutes . They were both waiting . Mrs . Meserve waited for the other 's curiosity to develop in order that her news might have , as it were , a befitting stage entrance . Mrs . Emerson waited for the news . Finally she could wait no longer . " Well , Simon says my face is so expressive I can 't hide anything more than five minutes no matter how hard I try , " said she . " Well , there is some news . Simon came home with it this noon . He heard it in South Dayton . He had some business over there this morning . The old Sargent place is let . " " Why , some folks from Boston that moved to South Dayton last year . They haven 't been satisfied with the house they had there - it wasn 't large enough . The man has got considerable property and can afford to live pretty well . He 's got a wife and his unmarried sister in the family . The sister 's got money , too . He does business in Boston and it 's just as easy to get to Boston from here as from South Dayton , and so they 're coming here . You know the old Sargent house is a splendid place . " " Oh , Simon said they told him about that and he just laughed . Said he wasn 't afraid and neither was his wife and sister . Said he 'd risk ghosts rather than little tucked - up sleeping - rooms without any sun , like they 've had in the Dayton house . Said he 'd rather risk SEEING ghosts , than risk being ghosts themselves . Simon said they said he was a great hand to joke . " " Oh , well , " said Mrs . Emerson , " it is a beautiful house , and maybe there isn 't anything in those stories . It never seemed to me they came very straight anyway . I never took much stock in them . All I thought was - if his wife was nervous . " " Nothing in creation would hire me to go into a house that I 'd ever heard a word against of that kind , " declared Mrs . Meserve with emphasis . " I wouldn 't go into that house if they would give me the rent . I 've seen enough of haunted houses to last me as long as I live . " " I never told anybody but Simon , " said Mrs . Meserve . " I never felt as if it was wise perhaps . I didn 't know what folks might think . So many don 't believe in anything they can 't understand , that they might think my mind wasn 't right . Simon advised me not to talk about it . He said he didn 't believe it was anything supernatural , but he had to own up that he couldn 't give any explanation for it to save his life . He had to own up that he didn 't believe anybody could . Then he said he wouldn 't talk about it . He said lots of folks would sooner tell folks my head wasn 't right than to own up they couldn 't see through it . " " Of course , " said she , " I ain 't going to say positively that I believe or disbelieve in ghosts , but all I tell you is what I saw . I can 't explain it . I don 't pretend I can , for I can 't . If you can , well and good ; I shall be glad , for it will stop tormenting me as it has done and always will otherwise . There hasn 't been a day nor a night since it happened that I haven 't thought of it , and always I have felt the shivers go down my back when I did . " " Ain 't it ? Well , it happened before I was married , when I was a girl and lived in East Wilmington . It was the first year I lived there . You know my family all died five years before that . I told you . " " Well , I went there to teach school , and I went to board with a Mrs . Amelia Dennison and her sister , Mrs . Bird . Abby , her name was - Abby Bird . She was a widow ; she had never had any children . She had a little money - Mrs . Dennison didn 't have any - and she had come to East Wilmington and bought the house they lived in . It was a real pretty house , though it was very old and run down . It had cost Mrs . Bird a good deal to put it in order . I guess that was the reason they took me to board . I guess they thought it would help along a little . I guess what I paid for my board about kept us all in victuals . Mrs . Bird had enough to live on if they were careful , but she had spent so much fixing up the old house that they must have been a little pinched for awhile . " Anyhow , they took me to board , and I thought I was pretty lucky to get in there . I had a nice room , big and sunny and furnished pretty , the paper and paint all new , and everything as neat as wax . Mrs . Dennison was one of the best cooks I ever saw , and I had a little stove in my room , and there was always a nice fire there when I got home from school . I thought I hadn 't been in such a nice place since I lost my own home , until I had been there about three weeks . " Well , I went there in September . I begun my school the first Monday . I remember it was a real cold fall , there was a frost the middle of September , and I had to put on my winter coat . I remember when I came home that night ( let me see , I began school on a Monday , and that was two weeks from the next Thursday ) , I took off my coat downstairs and laid it on the table in the front entry . It was a real nice coat - heavy black broadcloth trimmed with fur ; I had had it the winter before . Mrs . Bird called after me as I went upstairs that I ought not to leave it in the front entry for fear somebody might come in and take it , but I only laughed and called back to her that I wasn 't afraid . I never was much afraid of burglars . " Well , though it was hardly the middle of September , it was a real cold night . I remember my room faced west , and the sun was getting low , and the sky was a pale yellow and purple , just as you see it sometimes in the winter when there is going to be a cold snap . I rather think that was the night the frost came the first time . I know Mrs . Dennison covered up some flowers she had in the front yard , anyhow . I remember looking out and seeing an old green plaid shawl of hers over the verbena bed . There was a fire in my little wood - stove . Mrs . Bird made it , I know . She was a real motherly sort of woman ; she always seemed to be the happiest when she was doing something to make other folks happy and comfortable . Mrs . Dennison told me she had always been so . She said she had coddled her husband within an inch of his life . ' It 's lucky Abby never had any children , ' she said , ' for she would have spoilt them . ' " Well , that night I sat down beside my nice little fire and ate an apple . There was a plate of nice apples on my table . Mrs . Bird put them there . I was always very fond of apples . Well , I sat down and ate an apple , and was having a beautiful time , and thinking how lucky I was to have got board in such a place with such nice folks , when I heard a queer little sound at my door . It was such a little hesitating sort of sound that it sounded more like a fumble than a knock , as if some one very timid , with very little hands , was feeling along the door , not quite daring to knock . For a minute I thought it was a mouse . But I waited and it came again , and then I made up my mind it was a knock , but a very little scared one , so I said , ' Come in . ' " Well , I opened the door , and the first thing I noticed was a draught of cold air , as if the front door downstairs was open , but there was a strange close smell about the cold draught . It smelled more like a cellar that had been shut up for years , than out - of - doors . Then I saw something . I saw my coat first . The thing that held it was so small that I couldn 't see much of anything else . Then I saw a little white face with eyes so scared and wishful that they seemed as if they might eat a hole in anybody 's heart . It was a dreadful little face , with something about it which made it different from any other face on earth , but it was so pitiful that somehow it did away a good deal with the dreadfulness . And there were two little hands spotted purple with the cold , holding up my winter coat , and a strange little far - away voice said : ' I can 't find my mother . ' " All the time I could smell the cold and I saw that it was about the child ; that cold was clinging to her as if she had come out of some deadly cold place . Well , I took my coat , I did not know what else to do , and the cold was clinging to that . It was as cold as if it had come off ice . When I had the coat I could see the child more plainly . She was dressed in one little white garment made very simply . It was a nightgown , only very long , quite covering her feet , and I could see dimly through it her little thin body mottled purple with the cold . Her face did not look so cold ; that was a clear waxen white . Her hair was dark , but it looked as if it might be dark only because it was so damp , almost wet , and might really be light hair . It clung very close to her forehead , which was round and white . She would have been very beautiful if she had not been so dreadful . " ' What are you ? ' says I . Then she went away . She did not seem to run or walk like other children . She flitted , like one of those little filmy white butterflies , that don 't seem like real ones they are so light , and move as if they had no weight . But she looked back from the head of the stairs . ' I can 't find my mother , ' said she , and I never heard such a voice . " Well , I thought for a moment I should faint away . The room got dark and I heard a singing in my ears . Then I flung my coat onto the bed . My hands were as cold as ice from holding it , and I stood in my door , and called first Mrs . Bird and then Mrs . Dennison . I didn 't dare go down over the stairs where that had gone . It seemed to me I should go mad if I didn 't see somebody or something like other folks on the face of the earth . I thought I should never make anybody hear , but I could hear them stepping about downstairs , and I could smell biscuits baking for supper . Somehow the smell of those biscuits seemed the only natural thing left to keep me in my right mind . I didn 't dare go over those stairs . I just stood there and called , and finally I heard the entry door open and Mrs . Bird called back : " ' It was a child I have never seen here before . It looked like a child , ' says I , ' but I never saw a child so dreadful , and it had on a nightgown , and said she couldn 't find her mother . Who was it ? What was it ? ' " I thought for a minute Mrs . Dennison was going to faint , but Mrs . Bird hung onto her and rubbed her hands , and whispered in her ear ( she had the cooingest kind of voice ) , and I ran and got her a glass of cold water . I tell you it took considerable courage to go downstairs alone , but they had set a lamp on the entry table so I could see . I don 't believe I could have spunked up enough to have gone downstairs in the dark , thinking every second that child might be close to me . The lamp and the smell of the biscuits baking seemed to sort of keep my courage up , but I tell you I didn 't waste much time going down those stairs and out into the kitchen for a glass of water . I pumped as if the house was afire , and I grabbed the first thing I came across in the shape of a tumbler : it was a painted one that Mrs . Dennison 's Sunday school class gave her , and it was meant for a flower vase . " ' I 'm all over it now , ' says she , but she was terribly white , and her eyes looked as if they saw something outside things . Mrs . Bird wasn 't much better , but she always had a sort of settled sweet , good look that nothing could disturb to any great extent . I knew I looked dreadful , for I caught a glimpse of myself in the glass , and I would hardly have known who it was . " ' That isn 't much , ' said Mrs . Dennison with a dying - away sort of sigh . She looked as if she might faint away again any minute . She was a real delicate - looking woman , but it turned out she was a good deal stronger than poor Mrs . Bird . " They hadn 't any sooner fairly bought the house , and moved into it , than they began to see and hear things . Mrs . Bird said they were sitting together in the sitting - room one evening when they heard it the first time . She said her sister was knitting lace ( Mrs . Dennison made beautiful knitted lace ) and she was reading the Missionary Herald ( Mrs . Bird was very much interested in mission work ) , when all of a sudden they heard something . She heard it first and she laid down her Missionary Herald and listened , and then Mrs . Dennison she saw her listening and she drops her lace . ' What is it you are listening to , Abby ? ' says she . Then it came again and they both heard , and the cold shivers went down their backs to hear it , though they didn 't know why . ' It 's the cat , isn 't it ? ' says Mrs . Bird . " ' Oh , I guess it MUST be the cat ; maybe she 's got a mouse , ' says Mrs . Bird , real cheerful , to calm down Mrs . Dennison , for she saw she was ' most scared to death , and she was always afraid of her fainting away . Then she opens the door and calls , ' Kitty , kitty , kitty ! ' They had brought their cat with them in a basket when they came to East Wilmington to live . It was a real handsome tiger cat , a tommy , and he knew a lot . " ' Somethin 's got hold of that cat 's tail , ' says Mrs . Dennison . ' Somethin 's got hold of his tail . It 's pulled straight out , an ' he can 't get away . Just hear him yawl ! ' " Well , she was so dumfounded that she didn 't know what to do , and she couldn 't sense at first that it was anything supernatural . She thought it must be one of the neighbour 's children who had run away and was making free of their house , and was teasing their cat , and that they must be just nervous to feel so upset by it . So she speaks up sort of sharp . " ' Don 't you know that you mustn 't pull the kitty 's tail ? ' says she . ' Don 't you know you hurt the poor kitty , and she 'll scratch you if you don 't take care . Poor kitty , you mustn 't hurt her . ' " Then the child looks up and stops stroking the cat , and says she can 't find her mother , just the way she said it to me . Then Mrs . Dennison she gave such a gasp that Mrs . Bird thought she was going to faint away , but she didn 't . ' Well , who is your mother ? ' says she . But the child just says again ' I can 't find my mother - I can 't find my mother . ' " Well , that was the way it was . Nothing happened . Those two women stood there hanging onto each other , and the child stood in front of them , and they asked her questions , and everything she would say was : ' I can 't find my mother . ' " She tried to catch the child . She had an idea of putting a shawl around it and going out - she was such a little thing she could have carried her easy enough - and trying to find out to which of the neighbours she belonged . But the minute she moved toward the child there wasn 't any child there ; there was only that little voice seeming to come from nothing , saying ' I can 't find my mother , ' and presently that died away . " Well , that same thing kept happening , or something very much the same . Once in awhile Mrs . Bird would be washing dishes , and all at once the child would be standing beside her with the dish - towel , wiping them . Of course , that was terrible . Mrs . Bird would wash the dishes all over . Sometimes she didn 't tell Mrs . Dennison , it made her so nervous . Sometimes when they were making cake they would find the raisins all picked over , and sometimes little sticks of kindling - wood would be found laying beside the kitchen stove . They never knew when they would come across that child , and always she kept saying over and over that she couldn 't find her mother . They never tried talking to her , except once in awhile Mrs . Bird would get desperate and ask her something , but the child never seemed to hear it ; she always kept right on saying that she couldn 't find her mother . " After they had told me all they had to tell about their experience with the child , they told me about the house and the people that had lived there before they did . It seemed something dreadful had happened in that house . And the land agent had never let on to them . I don 't think they would have bought it if he had , no matter how cheap it was , for even if folks aren 't really afraid of anything , they don 't want to live in houses where such dreadful things have happened that you keep thinking about them . I know after they told me I should never have stayed there another night , if I hadn 't thought so much of them , no matter how comfortable I was made ; and I never was nervous , either . But I stayed . Of course , it didn 't happen in my room . If it had I could not have stayed . " " It was an awful thing . That child had lived in the house with her father and mother two years before . They had come - or the father had - from a real good family . He had a good situation : he was a drummer for a big leather house in the city , and they lived real pretty , with plenty to do with . But the mother was a real wicked woman . She was as handsome as a picture , and they said she came from good sort of people enough in Boston , but she was bad clean through , though she was real pretty spoken and most everybody liked her . She used to dress out and make a great show , and she never seemed to take much interest in the child , and folks began to say she wasn 't treated right . " The woman had a hard time keeping a girl . For some reason one wouldn 't stay . They would leave and then talk about her awfully , telling all kinds of things . People didn 't believe it at first ; then they began to . They said that the woman made that little thing , though she wasn 't much over five years old , and small and babyish for her age , do most of the work , what there was done ; they said the house used to look like a pig - sty when she didn 't have help . They said the little thing used to stand on a chair and wash dishes , and they 'd seen her carrying in sticks of wood most as big as she was many a time , and they 'd heard her mother scolding her . The woman was a fine singer , and had a voice like a screech - owl when she scolded . " But that was very easy to say ; it wouldn 't have been so easy to find anybody who would have been willing to tell him such a thing as that , especially when they weren 't any too sure . He set his eyes by his wife , too . They said all he seemed to think of was to earn money to buy things to deck her out in . And he about worshiped the child , too . They said he was a real nice man . The men that are treated so bad mostly are real nice men . I 've always noticed that . " Well , one morning that man that there had been whispers about was missing . He had been gone quite a while , though , before they really knew that he was missing , because he had gone away and told his wife that he had to go to New York on business and might be gone a week , and not to worry if he didn 't get home , and not to worry if he didn 't write , because he should be thinking from day to day that he might take the next train home and there would be no use in writing . So the wife waited , and she tried not to worry until it was two days over the week , then she run into a neighbour 's and fainted dead away on the floor ; and then they made inquiries and found out that he had skipped - with some money that didn 't belong to him , too . " Well , there was this house shut up , and the man and woman missing and the child . Then all of a sudden one of the women that lived the nearest remembered something . She remembered that she had waked up three nights running , thinking she heard a child crying somewhere , and once she waked up her husband , but he said it must be the Bisbees ' little girl , and she thought it must be . The child wasn 't well and was always crying . It used to have colic spells , especially at night . So she didn 't think any more about it until this came up , then all of a sudden she did think of it . She told what she had heard , and finally folks began to think they had better enter that house and see if there was anything wrong . " Yes , they found that poor child there , starved to death , and frozen , though they weren 't sure she had frozen to death , for she was in bed with clothes enough to keep her pretty warm when she was alive . But she had been there a week , and she was nothing but skin and bone . It looked as if the mother had locked her into the house when she went away , and told her not to make any noise for fear the neighbours would hear her and find out that she herself had gone . " Mrs . Dennison said she couldn 't really believe that the woman had meant to have her own child starved to death . Probably she thought the little thing would raise somebody , or folks would try to get in the house and find her . Well , whatever she thought , there the child was , dead . " But that wasn 't all . The father came home , right in the midst of it ; the child was just buried , and he was beside himself . And - he went on the track of his wife , and he found her , and he shot her dead ; it was in all the papers at the time ; then he disappeared . Nothing had been seen of him since . Mrs . Dennison said that she thought he had either made way with himself or got out of the country , nobody knew , but they did know there was something wrong with the house . " Yes , I saw it a number of times before the last time . It was lucky I wasn 't nervous , or I never could have stayed there , much as I liked the place and much as I thought of those two women ; they were beautiful women , and no mistake . I loved those women . I hope Mrs . Dennison will come and see me sometime . " Well , I stayed , and I never knew when I 'd see that child . I got so I was very careful to bring everything of mine upstairs , and not leave any little thing in my room that needed doing , for fear she would come lugging up my coat or hat or gloves or I 'd find things done when there 'd been no live being in the room to do them . I can 't tell you how I dreaded seeing her ; and worse than the seeing her was the hearing her say , ' I can 't find my mother . ' It was enough to make your blood run cold . I never heard a living child cry for its mother that was anything so pitiful as that dead one . It was enough to break your heart . " But Mrs . Dennison told her she didn 't think she ought to speak so nor even think so , and Mrs . Bird said she shouldn 't wonder if she was right . Mrs . Bird was always very easy to put in the wrong . She was a good woman , and one that couldn 't do things enough for other folks . It seemed as if that was what she lived on . I don 't think she was ever so scared by that poor little ghost , as much as she pitied it , and she was ' most heartbroken because she couldn 't do anything for it , as she could have done for a live child . " ' It seems to me sometimes as if I should die if I can 't get that awful little white robe off that child and get her in some clothes and feed her and stop her looking for her mother , ' I heard her say once , and she was in earnest . She cried when she said it . That wasn 't long before she died . " Now I am coming to the strangest part of it all . Mrs . Bird died very sudden . One morning - it was Saturday , and there wasn 't any school - I went downstairs to breakfast , and Mrs . Bird wasn 't there ; there was nobody but Mrs . Dennison . She was pouring out the coffee when I came in . ' Why , where 's Mrs . Bird ? ' says I . " ' Yes , I guess she has , ' says Mrs . Dennison . ' I guess she 's got cold . She 'll be up before long . Abby ain 't one to stay in bed a minute longer than she can help . ' " ' Why , Abby 's crazy ! ' says she . ' There she is out this bitter cold morning , and - and - ' She didn 't finish , but she meant the child . For we were both looking out , and we saw , as plain as we ever saw anything in our lives , Mrs . Abby Bird walking off over the white snow - path with that child holding fast to her hand , nestling close to her as if she had found her own mother . Thank You for taking the time to comment on this article . Please note , we moderate every comment before we allow it to post . 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