e time for words. He rode forward to the altar, swung
Helen up behind him, and exclaimed, "Save yourselves! The British are
coming! To horse, every one, and make for the manor!" There were shrieks
and fainting--and perhaps a little cursing, even if it was in
church,--and when the squadron rode up most of the company were in full
flight. Ernest was taken, and next morning held his brother's place on
the prison-list, while, as arrangements had been made for a wedding,
there was one, and a happy one, but Albert was the bridegroom.

SPOOKS OF THE HIAWASSEE

The hills about the head of the Hiawassee are filled with "harnts," among
them many animal ghosts, that ravage about the country from sheer
viciousness. The people of the region, illiterate and superstitious, have
unquestioning faith in them. They tell you about the headless bull and
black dog of the valley of the Chatata, the white stag of the
Sequahatchie, and the bleeding horse of the Great Smoky Mountains--the
last three being portents of illness, death, or misfortune to those who
see them.

Other ghosts are those of men. Near the upper Hiawassee is a cave where a
pile of human skulls was found by a man who had put up his cabin near the
entrance. For some reason, which he says he never understood, this farmer
gathered up the old, bleached bones and dumped them into his shed. Quite
possibly he did not dare to confess that he wanted them for fertilizers
or to burn them for his poultry.

Night fell dark and still, with a waning moon rising over the
mountains--as calm a night as ever one slept through. Along toward the
middle of it a sound like the coming of a cyclone brought the farmer out
of his bed. He ran to the window to see if the house were to be uprooted,
but the forest was still, with a strange, oppressive stillness--not a
twig moving, not a cloud veiling the stars, not an insect chirping.
Filled with a vague fear, he tried to waken his wife, but she was like
one in a state of catalepsy.

Again the sound was heard, and now he saw, without, a shadowy band
circling about his house like leaves whirled on the wind. It seemed to be
made of human shapes, with tossing arms--this circling band--and the
sound was that of many voices, each faint and hollow, by itself, but loud
in aggregate. He who was watching realized then that the wraiths of the
dead whose skulls he had purloined from their place of sepulture were out
in lament and protest. He went on his kne