478 Old Time Gardens 



whirring of her great wool wheel. When this 

 rumor reached the brothers' ears, they determined 

 to investigate the story and end it forever. That 

 night their vigil began, and soon the sound of the 

 wheel was heard. They entered the garret, and to 

 their surprise found the wheel spinning round. 

 Then Joseph Mason went to the garret and seated 

 himself for closer and more determined watch. He 

 sat in the dark till the wheel began to revolve, then 

 struck a sudden light and found the ghost. A great 

 rat had run out on the spoke of the wheel and when 

 he reached the broad rim had started a treadmill of 

 his own — which made the ghostly sound as it whirred 

 around. Soon this rat grew so tame that he would 

 come out on the spinning-wheel in the daytime, and 

 several others were seen to run around in the wheel 

 as if it were a pleasant recreation. 



The old brick house still stands with its great 

 grove of Sugar Maples, but it is silent, for the 

 Masons all sleep in the graveyard behind the church 

 high up on the hillside ; no travellers stop within 

 • the doors, the ghost rats are dead, the spinning- 

 wheel is gone, but the garden still blossoms with 

 eternal youth. Though children no longer gather 

 rose leaves for Rose tobacco, the " Roses of Yester- 

 day " bloom every year; and each June morn, "a 

 thousand blossoms with the day awake," and fling 

 their spicy fragrance on the air. 



