ather, who will have
no one with him in his room during her absence. He is very anxious to
see Grey, but I doubt if he will even let him into the bedroom."

During this conversation Grey had listened intently, and now he
exclaimed;

"I have it. My dinner will taste better if I see grandpa first, and show
him my Alpenstock, with all those names burned on it. I mean to drive
over after Aunt Hannah myself. It will be such fun to surprise them
both."

"Grey, are you crazy to think of going out in this storm?" Mrs. Jerrold
exclaimed.

But Grey persisted, and, pointing to the window, said:

"It is not snowing half as fast as it did; and look, there's a bit of
blue sky. I can go, can't I, Aunt Lucy?"

"Ye-es, if Tom is willing," Lucy said, a little doubtfully; for she
stood somewhat in awe of Tom, who did not like to harness oftener than
was necessary.

"Pho! I'll risk Tom," Grey said. "Tom knows me;" and in less than ten
minutes one of the bays was harnessed to the cutter, and Grey was
driving along in the direction of the farm-house, which, for the first
time in his life, struck him as something weird-like and dreary,
standing there alone among the rocks, with the snow piled upon the roof
and clinging in masses to the small window-panes. "I don't wonder mother
thinks it seems like some old haunted house we read about. It is just
the spot for a lively ghost. I wish I could see one," he thought, as he
drove into the side-yard, and, giving his horse to the care of the
chore-boy, Sam, who was in the barn, he went stamping into the kitchen.

CHAPTER V.

THE OLD MAN AND THE BOY.

Old Mr. Jerrold had failed rapidly within a few weeks, but as long as
possible he dressed himself every day and sat in his arm-chair in the
kitchen, for the front room was rarely used in winter. At one time, when
Hannah saw how weak her father was growing, and knew that he must soon
take to his bed, she suggested that he should occupy the south room, it
was so much more sunny and cheerful than his sleeping apartment, which
was always dark, and gloomy, and cheerless. But her father said no very
decidedly.

"It has been a part of my punishment to keep watch in that room all
these dreadful years, and I shall stay there till I die. And, Hannah,
when I cannot get up any more, but must lie there all day and all night
long, don't let any one in, not even Miss Grey, for it seems to me there
are mirrors everywhere, and that the walls and flo