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Page 38
It was drawing toward nine o'clock, and symptoms of closing for the
night were beginning to manifest themselves in Mr. Pegram's store. The
few among the nightly loungers there who had still a remnant of domestic
conscience left had already risen from boxes and "kags," and gathered up
the pound packages of sugar and coffee which had served as the pretext
for their coming, but which would not, alas! sufficiently account for
the length of their stay. The older stagers still sat composedly in the
seats of honor immediately surrounding the red-hot stove, and a look of
disapproval passed over their faces as Mr. Pegram, opening the door and
thereby letting in a blast of cold air upon their legs, proceeded to put
up the outside shutters.
"In a hurry to-night, ain't you, Pegram?" inquired Mr. Dickey, as the
proprietor returned, brushing flakes of snow from his coat and shivering
expressively.
"Well, not particular," replied Mr. Pegram, with a deliberation which
confirmed his words, "but it's pretty nigh nine, and Sally she ast me
not to be later _than_ nine to-night, for our hired girl's gone
home for a spell, and that makes it kind of lonesome for Sally: the baby
don't count for much, only when he cries, and I'll do him the justice to
say that isn't often."
"It's a new thing for Sally to be scary, ain't it?" queried Mr.
Crumlish, with an expression of mild surprise.
"Well, yes, I may say it is," admitted Mr. Pegram; "but, you know, we
had a kind of a warning, before we moved in, that all wasn't quite as it
should be, and, as bad luck would have it, there was a Boston paper come
round her new coat, with a story in it that laid out to be true, of
noises and appearances, and one thing and another, in a house right
there to Boston, and Sally she says to me, 'If they believe in them
things to Boston, where they don't believe in nothing they can't see and
handle, if all we hear's true, there must be something in it, and I only
wish I'd read that piece before we took the house.'
"I keep a-telling her we've neither seen nor heard nothing out of the
common, so far, but all she'll say to that is, 'That's no reason we
won't;' and sure enough it isn't, though I don't tell her so."
"But surely," said Mr. Birchard, the young schoolmaster, who boarded
with Mr. Dickey, "you don't believe any such trash as that account of a
haunted house in Boston?" There was a non-committal silence, and he went
on impatiently, "I could give you a dozen instances in which mysteries
of this kind, when they were energetically followed up, were proved to
be the results of the most simple and natural causes."
"Like enough, like enough, young man," said Uncle Jabez Snyder, in his
tremulous tones, "and mebbe some folks not a hunderd miles from here
could tell you another dozen that hadn't no natural causes."
"I should like very much to hear them," replied the young man, with an
exasperatingly incredulous smile.
"If Pegram here wasn't in such a durned hurry to turn us out and shet
up," said Mr. Dickey, with manifest irritation, "Uncle Jabez could tell
you all you want to hear."
Mr. Pegram looked disturbed. It was with him a fixed principle never to
disoblige a customer, and he saw that he was disobliging at least half a
dozen. On the other hand, he was not prepared to face his wife should he
so daringly disregard her wishes as to keep the store open half an hour
later than usual. He pondered for a few moments, and then his face
suddenly brightened, and he said, "If one of you gentlemen that passes
my house on your way home would undertake to put coal on the fire, put
the lights out, lock the door, and bring me the key, the store's at your
disposal till ten o'clock; and I'm only sorry I can't stay myself."
Two or three immediately volunteered, but as the schoolmaster and Mr.
Dickey were the only ones whose way lay directly past Mr. Pegram's door,
it was decided that they should divide the labors and honors between
them.
"I'd like you not to stop later _than_ ten," said Mr. Pegram
deprecatingly, as he buttoned his great-coat and drew his hat down over
his eyes, "for I have to be up so early, since that boy cleared out,
that I need to go to bed sooner than I mostly do."
Compliance with this modest request was readily promised, good-nights
were exchanged, and the lessened circle drew in more closely around the
stove, for several of the company had reluctantly decided that, all
things considered, it would be the better part of valor for them to go
when Mr. Pegram went.
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