Part 1 (1/2)

Roy Blakeley in the Haunted Cah

CHAPTER I

THE HOUSE IN THE LANE

One fine day in thein the trees and all the schools were closed and hikes and ca and ice creaated on the platfor of far reaching consequence happened

On that day Joshua Hicks, posted froon-shaped, steel-ri nose, held a certain large envelope at ar it with an air of rueful perplexity said,

”Well--by--gum!”

Then he cocked his head to one side, then to the other, squinted first his right eye, then his left, and at last inquired, of the chickens, apparently,

”What--in--all--_cre-a-tion_ is this?”

The chickens did not answer hi, perhaps, that there was no mail for them With the exception of two persons the chickens were the only creatures that ever waited for the mail in Hicksville

In the peacefulness of the Hicksville solitude the train could be heard rattling over the bridge and into the woods beyond, going straight about its business as if Hicksville did not exist

It was no wonder that Joshua Hicks was astonished, for things like this did not happen in Hicksville every day The last previous event had been a circus but that was nothing coe envelope For the address on this was as follows:

To a lady in Hicksville, North Carolina, who lives in a white house with the end of the porch broken and with a dog that has a collar Maybe there's abroken

In the upper left hand corner ritten:

If not delivered sometieboro New Jersey troop, Boy Scouts of Aht hand corner was the additional information:

P S There is a puddle outside the woodshed or a pail

With such detailed information as this Uncle Sam, that world renowned errand boy, could hardly do otherwise than deliver this formidable docureat train, which goes to show you what boy scouts can do

Thinking no doubt that an envelope of such i such explicit descriptive matter was entitled to the honor of rural free delivery, the poste straw hat and started up the road

He came presently to a s with a collar greeted hi, in his huone abroad and that his personal distinction of a collar was known in the sovereign commonwealth of New Jersey, not to eboro, county seat so-called, because of the co there to spend their tiht more appropriately have been called the county couch, since the inhabitants were said to be forever in a kind of doze

But if Bridgeboro, New Jersey, dozed, Hicksville, North Carolina, had the sleeping sickness And it did not even walk in its sleep for not a soul was to be seen about the little white house nor anywhere else

There was no doubt, however, of its being the house in question A pillar at the end of the porch had rotted away and the roof over the little platfor frooing to take any chances So he playfully ruffled the dog's hair to make sure that the collar was around the ani satisfied himself of this he strolled around in back of the house for an official inspection of the puddle or the pail

The United States governs; puddles especially

There, sure enough, was the puddle, a perennial puddle, fed by a laughing, babbling, leaky drainpipe Joshua Hicks dipped a finger in the mud and made sure of the puddle He then looked for the pail, and not seeing it, put on his steel spectacles and glanced again at the envelope

”A puddle _or_ a pail,” he said ”I reckon that's all right; it says _or_ a pail”