The Haunted Homestead
A NOVEL
BY MRS. E. D. E. N. SOUTHWORTH
Author of "Ishmael," "Retribution," "The Bridal Eve," "A Noble Lord,""The Deserted Wife," "Unknown," "The Lady of the Isle," "The Bride'sFate," "Victor's Triumph," "The Wife's Victory," etc.
CHICAGO
M. A. DONOHUE & CO.
CONTENTS
THE HAUNTED HOMESTEAD.
THE PRESENTIMENT.
CHAPTER I. THE QUADROON.
CHAPTER II. THE MANIAC'S CURSE.
CHAPTER III. THE BOTTLE DEMON.
CHAPTER IV. AN HUMBLE WEDDING.
CHAPTER V. A CLOUDED HONEYMOON.
CHAPTER VI. PROPHETIC.
CHAPTER VII. CAIN.
CHAPTER VIII. THE APPARITION.
CHAPTER IX. THE TRIAL.
CHAPTER X. THE SCAFFOLD.
THE SPECTRE REVELS.
THE GILBERTS
CHAPTER I. THE GILBERTS.
CHAPTER II. NELLIE.
CHAPTER III. THE HAUNTED HOUSE.
CHAPTER IV. JEALOUSY.
CHAPTER V. NEW RELATIONS.
CHAPTER VI. POOR, POOR NELLIE.
Other Fiction
THE HAUNTED HOMESTEAD.
A dwelling-place—and yet no habitation;
A house, but under some prodigious ban
Of excommunication.—Hood.
In childhood I always had a fearless faith in ghosts. I desired beforeall sights to see them, and threw myself in the way of meeting themwhenever and wherever there seemed the slightest possibility of sodoing. Whenever there were mysterious sounds heard in the night, Ilistened with breathless interest, arose from the bed in silenteagerness, and went stealing on tiptoe through the dark house in thehopes of meeting the ghosts. Once I met a severe blow on the nose fromthe sharp edge of an open door, and once a tom cat, who made one springfrom the top of the pantry shelves upon my head, and another thencethrough a broken window pane. I would have liked to fancy him a ghostlycat, only I knew him too well for our own "Tom," the cunningest thiefthat ever run on four feet. Another time, perambulating through thehouse at midnight, I surprised a burglar, who, mistaking me in thedarkness for the master of the house, the watch, or an ambush, jumpedstraight over my head (or past me, I hardly knew which in myastonishment), and made his escape at the back door. But I must say thatI never met a ghost, or even a "vestige" of a ghost until—but I think Iwill begin at the beginning and tell you the whol