Page:Stringer - Lonely O'Malley.djvu/258

 "It was a woman, all dressed in white, walkin' round and round and round the house, moanin' and wringin' her hands, and cryin' something awful. But that was n't all. When she come to the veranda railin', instead of walkin' round it, or climbin' over it, she just walked right through it, same as though it was smoke!

"'I guess I 'll cut f'r home!' Speck says to me, drawin' back through the weeds. That made me kind o' mad. 'Speck,' says I, 'I 'm a-goin' to find out what's worryin' that woman, or bust!' says I.

"'Don't you do it. Lonely,' says he. And he began to cry, and said he 'd give me his two pouters and a agate alley if I 'd go as far as the fence with him.

"'All right. Speck,' says I, 'you go home if you want to. But don't you say nothin' about this ghost to any of the rest of the gang!'

"And Speck, he promised, and crawled back through the bushes a blamed sight quicker than he 'd come in, and squeezed through the fence, and left me there alone with that woman walkin' round and round the house, wringin'