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The following events occurred on a small island of isolated position in a large Canadian lake, to whose cool waters the wealthy inhabitants of Montreal and Toronto flee for rest and recreation in the. hot months. It is only to be regretted that events of sucl. peculiar interest to the genuine student. of the psychical should be enâ€" tirely uncorroborated. Such unforâ€" tunately, however, is the case. Our own party of nearly twenty had returned to Montreal that very day, and I was left in solitary possession for a week or two longer, in order to acccomiplish some important "reading" for the law which 1 had foolishly negâ€" lectec during the summer. It was late in September, and the big trout and maskinonge were stirâ€" ring themselves in the depths of the lake, and beginning slowly to move up to the surface waters as the north winds and early frosts lowered their temperature. 'Already the maples were crimson and gold, and the wild laughter of the locus echoed in shel- tered bays that never knew their strange cry in the summer. \Vith a whole island to oneself, a twoâ€"storey cottage, a canoe, and only the chipmunks, and the farmer‘s week- ly visit with eggs and bread, to disturb one, the opportunities for hard read- ing might be very great. It all de- ptndsl The. rest of the party had gone off with many warnings to beware of Inâ€" dians, and not to stay late enough to be the victim of a frost that thinks no- thing of forty below zero. had gone, the loneliness of the situa- tion made itself unpleasantly felt. There were no other‘islands within six or seven miles, and though the main- lanc forests lay a couple of miles be-, hind me,- they stretched for a very great distance unbroken by any signs of human habitation. But though the island was completely deserted and silent, the rocks and trees that had echoed human laughter and voices al- _ most every hour of the day for two months could nOt fail to retain some memories of it all; and I was not surâ€" prised to fancy I heard a shout or cry as I {passed from rock to rock, and more than once to imagine that I heard my own name called aloud. In the cottage there were six tiny little bedrooms divided from one an- other by plain unvarnished partitions of pine. A wooden bedstead, a mat- tress and a chair, stood in each room, but I only found two mirrors, and one of these was broken. The boards creaked a good deal as I moved about, and the signs of occup- ation were so recent that 1 could hard- ly believe I was alone. I half expect- ed to find some one left behind, still trying to crowd into a box more than it would hold. The door of one room was stiff, and refused for a moment to open, and it required very little persuasion to imagine some one was holding the handle on the inside, and that. when it opened I should meet a pair of human eyes. A thorough search of the floor led me to select as my own sleeping quar- ters a little room with a diminutive balcony over the verandah roof. The room was very small, but the bed was large. and had the best mattress of them all. It was situated directly over the sitting-room where I should live and do my “reading,” and the miniature window looked out to the rising sun. With the exception of a narrow path which led from the front door and verandah through the treesi was to the boatâ€"landing, the island densely covered with maples, hemlocks and cedars. The trees gathered in rounc. the cottage so closely that the slightest wind made the branches scrape- the roof and tap the wooden walls. A few moments , after sunset the darkness became impenetrable, and ten yards beyond the glare of the lamps that shone through the sittingâ€" room windowsâ€"of which there were fourâ€"you could not see an inch be- fore. your nose, nor move a step with- out running up against a tree. The rest of that day I spent moving my belongings from my tent to the sitting-room, taking stock of the con- tents of the larder, and chopping enough wood for the stove to last me for a week. After that, just before sunset, 1 went round the island a con- ple of times in my canoe for precau- tion’s sake. I had never dreamed of doing this before, but when a man's alone he does things that never occur to him when he is one of a large party How lonely the island seemed when I landed againl The sun was down, and twilight is unknown in these northern regions. The darkness comes up at once. The canoe pulled up and turned over on her face, I groped my way up the little narrow pathway to the verandah. The six lamps were soon burning merrily in the front room; but in the kitchen, where I "dined," the shadows were so gloomy, and the lamplight was so inadequate, that the stars could be seen peeping through the cracks between the raft- era. 1 turned in early that night. After they ' Though it was calm and there was no wind, the creaking of my bedstead, and \Lui: musical gurgle ot the water over the rocks below Were not the only Linllflilr.‘ in it rt: iched my ears. As I lay awake, the appriling emptiness of the hULlSu grew upon me. Tire corridors and vacant rooms seemed to echo in- numerable footsteps, shufflings, the rustle of skirts, and a constant under- tont of whispering. When sleep at lengtl overtook me, the breathirrgs .nt‘. noises, however, passed gently to mingle with the voices of my dreams. A week passed by. and the "reading" progressed favorably. On the tenth d-iy of my solitude, a strange thing happened. I awoke after a good night’s sleep to find myself possessed with a marked repiignance for my rmrn. The air seemed to stifle me. The more I tried to define the cause of iiii:~ dislike, the more unreasonable it appeared. There was Something about the room thit made me afraid. Absurd as it seems. this feeling clung to me obstinalely while dressing, and more. than once I caught myself shiv- wing, and (trnSClOUS of an inclination to get out of the room as quickly 'is possible. The more I tried to laugh it away, the more real it lecanic; and when at l‘lSl, I was dressed, and went on. into the passage, and downstairs into the kitchen, it was with feelings of relief, such as 1 might imagine woqu accompany one’s escape from the. presence of a dangerous contagious disease. \Vhllc eating my breakfast, I care- fully recalled every night spent in the room. in the hope that I might in some way connect the dislike I now felt with some disagreeable incident that had occurred in it. But the only thing I could recall was one stormy night when I suddenly awoke. and heard the boards creaking so loudly 3“ the corridor. that I was convinccd there were people in the. house. So certain was I of this. that I had dcâ€" scended the stairs. gun in hand, only to find the doors and windows Secure- ,ly fastened, and the mice and black- bevrlcs in sole. possession of the floor. This was certainly not sufficient to raccount for the strength of my feel- , rngs Thc morning hours I spent in steady reading; and when I broke. off in the middle of the dry fin a swim Ilntl if not a little alarmed. to find that my dislike for the room il‘ltl, if anyâ€" thing. grown stringer. Going upstairs ’lo‘ get a book. I experienced the most marked aversion to entering the room, and while within 1 was conscious all the time of an uncomfortable feeling lthat was half uneasiness and half ap- lprehension. The result of it was that, ‘instead of reading, I spent the after- ‘noon on the water. paddling and fish- ing. and when I got home about stin- down. brought with me half a dozen delicious black bass for the supper- ltable and the larder. 1 As sleep was an important matter to me at this time, I had decided that if my aversion to the room was so lstrongly marked on my return as it had been before. I would move my bed down into the sitting-room, and sleep there. This “718,1 argued, in no sense a concession to an absurd and fanciful fear. but simply a precaution to insure \a good night’s sleep. A bad night in-‘ volved the loss of the next day’s read- ,ing,â€"a loss I was not prepared to in- i cur. 4 I accordingly moved my bed down- stairs into a corner of the sitting-room Ifacing the door, and was moreover un- commonly glad when the operation was completed, and the door of the bedroom closed finally upon the sha- dows, the silence, and the strange fear ‘that shared the room with them. 1 The creaking stroke of the kitchen Lclock sounded the hour of eight as I ifinished washing up my few dishes, and closing the kitChen door behind me. passed into the front room. All .the lamps were lit, and their reflect- lors, which I had polished_up during the day. threw a blaze of light into ithe room. Outside the night was still and warm. Not a breath of air was stir- |ing; the waves were silent, the trees motionless; and heavy clouds hung like an oppressive curtain over the ,heavens. The darkness seemed to ;h1vc rolled up with unusual swiftness, land not, the faintest glow of colour lremnined to show where the, sun had tset. There was present in the atmos- lphere that ominous and overwhelming lsilencc which so often precedes the 'most violent storms. I sat down to my books with my .brair: unusually clear, and in my heart the pleasant satisfaction of ,knowing that five black bass were ly- ing. in the iceâ€"house, and that toâ€"mor- row morning the old farmer would arâ€" rive with fresh bread and eggs. I was soon absorbed in my books. i As the night wore on the silence ldeepened. Even the chipmunks were still, and the boards of the floors and walls ceased creaking. 1 road on steadily till, from the gloomy shadows :of the kitchen, cirne the hoarse sound of the clock striking nine. How loud the strokes sounded! They were like blows of a big hammer. I closed one book and opened another, feeling that I was just warming up to my work. This, however, did not last long..l presently found that I was reading the same paragraphs over twice, slin- ple paragraphs that did not require. such effort. Then 1 noticed that my mind began to wander to Other things, and the effort to recall my thoughts became harder with each digression. Presently I discovered that and had not noticed my mistake until I was well down the page. This was liecoining serious. \Nhrit was the dis- turbing influence? It could not be physical fatigue. On the contrary, my mind was unusually alert, and in a more reCeptive condition than usual. I made a new and determined effort to read, and for a short time succeeded in giving my whole attention to my subject. But in a very few moments again I found myself leaning back in my chair, staring vacantly into space. Something was evidently at work in my sub-consciousness. Thcrt‘ \V'JIB .. something 1 had neglected to do. Pe; haps the kitchen door and window. were not fastened. I accordingly went to see. and found that they were? Thr- fire perhaps needed atteritit-n. l \veni in to see. and found lllil it was all right! I looked at the lumps, went ripstiirs into th-ry bedroom in turn, ind then Went round the house, and even into the. iceâ€"house. Nothing was wrong; everything was in its place. Yet something was wrongl The conâ€" viction grew stronger and stronger wltliii me. When i at length settled down to my books again and tried to read, 1 become aware, for the first time, that the room secured growing cold. Yet the day had been oppressively warm, and evening had brought no relief. The six big lamps, moreover, gave out heat enough to warm the room pleasantly. But a chilliness, that perhaps crept up from the lake, made itself felt in the room, and caused role to get up to Clinic, the glass door opening on to tln- verandah. For it brief moment I stood looking out at. the shaft of light that fell from the windows and shone some little dis- tanco down the. pathway, :Irlvl cut for a few feet into the lake. As I looked, I saw :1 canoe glide into the pathway of light, and immed- iately crossing it, piss out of sight again into the darkness. lt was perâ€" haps a hundred feet, from the shore, and it moved swiftly. l was surprised thil; a canoe should pass the island at that time of night, for all the summer visitors from the, other side of the lake had gone home weeks before, and the island was a long way out of any line of water traffic. My readings from this moment did not mgiiti' veiy good progress. for some- how the picture of that canoe, gliding so ditnly and swiftly across the narrow track of light on the black walcrs, sil- houetted itself against the background ‘of my mind with singular vivirlncss. It and the ki‘lll Corning between my eyes thought printed page. ,‘l‘lre HIJI‘e 1 ‘about it the more surprised I became. lt was of larger build than any 1 had seen during the. past summer months, and was more like the old Indian war canoes with the. high curving bows and stern and wide beam. The more i ‘ tlicd to read, the less success attended luncheon, I was very much surprised“ l l l l I had. turned over two pages instead of one,’ my efforts. and finally I closed my books and went out on the. verandah to walk up 11nd down a bit, and shake the chillincss out of my bones. The night was perfectly still, and as dark as imaginable. I stumbled down the path to the little landing wharf, where the water made the very faint- est of gurgling under the timbers. The sound of a Ill]: tree falling in the main- land forest, fir across the lake, stir- rod echoes in the heavy air, like the first guns of a distant night attack. No other sound disturbed the stillness that reigned supreme. As I stood upon the wharf in the broad splash of light that followed me frtm the sittingâ€"room windows, I saw another canoe cross the pathway of uncertain light upon the water, and disappear at once into the impene- trable gloom that lay beyond. This time I saw more. distinctly than before. It was like the former canoe, a big birch-bark, with highâ€"crested bows and stern and broad beam. It was paddled by two Indians, of whom the one in the sternâ€"the steererâ€"appeared to be a very large man. I could see this very plainly; and though the- second canoe was much nearer the island than the first, 1 judged that they were both on their way home to the Government Reservation, which was situated Some fifteen miles away uprn the main- land. I was wondering in my mind what could possrbly bring any Indians down to this part of the lllke at such an hour of the night. when a third canoe. of precisely similar build, and also oc- cupied by two lndians, passed silently round the end of the wh trf. This time the canoe was very much nearer shore, and it suddenly flashed into my mind that the three canoes were in reality one and the Same, and that only one canoe was circling the island! This was by no means a pleasant re- flection, booiuse if it were the correct solution of the. unusual appearance of the three canoes in this lonely part of the lake at so late an hour, the pur- pose of the two men could only reason- ably be considered to be in some way connected with myself. I had never known of the lndians attempting any violence upon the settlers who shared the wild, inhospitable country with them; at the same time, it was not be- yond the region of possibility to sup- pose But then 1 did not care to even think of such hideous possibili- ties, and my imagination immediately Sought relief in all manner of other solutions to the pr'olrlt'm, which indeed c-imv readily enough to my mind, but did not succeed in recommending thcmselves to my reason. Meanwhile, by a sort of instinct, I Stepped hick out of tlic bright light in which I ,had hitherto been standing. and waited in the deep shadow of a rock to see if the canoe would again In :ke its app airance. Here 1 could res and not be seen, and the pret‘uutiun seemed a wise one. After less than five minutes the canoe, as 1 had anticipated, made its fourth appearance. This time it was not twenty yards from the wharf, and I saw that the Indians meant to land. I recognized the twu men as those who had passed before. and the steerer‘ was certainly an immense follow. It was unquestionably the same canoe. There could be no longer any doubt that for somu purpose of their own the men had been going round and round the island for some time, waiting for an opportunity to land. I strained my cyes to follow them in the darkness, but the night had completely swallow- ed them up, and not even the faintest swish of the paddles reached my ears as the lndians plied their long and powerful strokes. The canoe would be rountr again in a few mwmcnts, and this time it was poSsible lh’ll: the men might land. It was well to be prepar- ed. 1 knew nothingr of their intentions and two to one. when the two are big Indians! late at night on a lonely is- .your lind was not exactly my idea of plea- sant intercourse. In a. Corner of ter sitting-room. leaning up against th~ b-ick wall, stood my Marlin rifle, with ten cartridges in the magazine and one lying snugly in the greased breach. There was just lime to get up to the house and take up a position of (ll‘ft'llCE: in iliit cor- ner. \Vithout an instant’s hesitation I ran. up to the verandah, carefully picking my W'iy among the trues. so :is to avoid being seen in the light. Entering the room, I shut the door leading to the verandah. and as quickâ€" ly as ptrssiblc turned out every one of the six lamps. To be in a room so brilliantly lighted, where my every movement could be obseivcd from outâ€" side, while i could see nothing but im- penetrable darkness at every window, was by all laws of winf’are an unnecesâ€" s-iry concession to the enemy. And this enemy. if enemy it was to be, was far too wily and dangerous to be granted any Sllt'll advantages. (To Be Continued.) TOYS OI? A CHINESE CHILI). Few indeed would be their playâ€" th.ngs if the Chinese children h‘ltl to depend on toy shops for them. As it is, the hawker is a familiar sight in every Chinese city, and when the children bear the gong of a toy seller it is a signal for a rush to the front gates. At a call these men slip the pole from their shoulders and set their baskets on the ground, and there is al- ways a group of children ready to gather round them. A display of toys carried by one of these toy selers includes many things familiar, besides kites, made in the shape of birds, fish serpents, dragons and even inanimate objects, like bells and homes, will h‘lVO wind harps fast- ened on to make them sing whilfin the air, and will have eyes set loose in their heads, so that when the wind blows the eyes will turn round and look as if they were winking at you. His paraphernalia also include alot of clay moulds of different kinds of animals or fruits or other familiar ob- jects, and for "one cash" you can take choice. The seller then opens up the bottom‘ tray in his rear basket and shows a bowl of yellow sweets set over a pan of burning charcoal to keep them soft. He rubs a little flour in the moulds to keep the sweets from sticking, picks up a little of the soft substance, which he works into a cup shape in his fin- gers, and then draws it out, closing up the hole. One end is drawn out long- er than the other and then broken off. He places his lips to the broken place and begins to blow, and the lump slowly swells. Then he claps the moulds which you have chosen round it, and gives a hard blow, breaks off the stem through which he has been blowing, opens the moulds, dips a little bamboo stick inâ€" to the soft sugar and touches it to the side of the sweetmeat figure in' the mould, lifts it out and hands it to you on the stick, all in much less time than it takes to tell about it. _ ,____-._____. IMITATION RUIEIES. One of the great prima donnas now in New York wears in one role a bean- tiful parure of diamonds, and she hor- rified another singer in the company by telling her that they were French imitations that had not cost one-fif- tieth of what they seemed to have cost The other woman was distressed be- cause all of hers were real, and the thought of the money invested in them was too much for her. Imitation jewels have come to be so finely made that detection is alâ€" most impossible. I~Iven for ordinafy wear they are accounted beautiful, and it is only the knowledge of their fal- slty which makes them unpopular. For every ordinary purpose they are as use- ful as the genuine pieces. The last jewels to be imitated with wonderful success are rubies, and they happen to be a fashionable stone just now. The manufactory which has these imitation rubies on the market is situ- ated in London. and it has already been said there that the price of real rubies will certainly fall in conseâ€" quence of the discovery of these won- derful imitations. The profits of the company making the rubies are said to be $185,000 a. year. Artificial rubies weighing 40 carats can be produced. bub are not, as there would be no sale for stones of that size. An authority has said that there is no way known to him by which these stones can he told from the genuine ones. A London jeweler questioned as to the possible results of these good and cheap imitations said that the stones impossible to imitate might become the most valuable and the most fash- ionable, eventually. PUT PINS IN HER MOUTH. Hundreds of women are in the liab- it of putting pins in their mouth. Mrs. Catherine Hackman died at her home in Lebanon, Penn., \Vednesday after suffering 25 years with a pin in her throat. More than a quarter of a century ago she accidentally swallowâ€" ed a pin, which lodged in her throat. She suffered excruciating pain at times, and was often obliged to take food through a tube. AWFUL THREAT. Jonesâ€"Are you going to pay me that account? Smithâ€"Not just yet. Jonesâ€"If you don’t I'll tell allyour creditors that you paid mel ITEMS OF INTEREST ABOUT THE BUSY YANKEE. Neighborly Interest in His Dolngsâ€"Matterl of Moment and flirth Gathered from I'll: Daily Record. Andrew Carnegie has offered to thl city of Atlanta the sum of $100,000 for a free public library on condition that the city furnish a site and maintain the library at a cost of not less than $5,000 a year. The national Government has contri- buted an 8â€"inch howitzer, with 141 shells, to marl: the grave of llfajor- tiixr'neral John Seilgwiok, in Cornwall, t‘onn. Gen-Aral Sedgwick was killed in lJllllt‘ during the civil war. There are four Macs in the Senateâ€"- McBride, McErici‘y, McLaurin and Mc- Millan. Two are Democrats and two Republicans; but they all voted for the treaty, and two of themâ€"Molinsry and Mclraurinâ€"secured its ratification. \Vithin a few years, or since about the time of Anna Gould's marriage to Count Casteliano, 152 rich American girls have married European noble- men. The dowries they have taken across the water average $100,000 each. Rober Barr, the novelist, says he will wager he can step off a train at any village in England, and at two out of every three houses receive an af- firmative answer to the question, "Have you any relatives in America 1” Congress has just passed a special :lCI placing upon the pension rolls Mrs. Mary lforbes Cobbin, New London, Irid., a Mexican war widow and one of the war of 1813. Her first husband hours H. Bryan, was a great-grand- father of \V. J. Bryan. Blanche Willis Howard von Teuffel, who died in Germany a few months ago, was cremated at Heidelberg, ac- cording to her wish, and the urn con- taining her ashes has been brought to this country and placed at Mount Hope cemetery, Bangor, Me. Helen Kellar, the deaf, dumb and blind student at Radcliffe College, visited the Boston Museum of Art a. few days ago and "saw" the statues. By passing her Sensitive figures over the figures she was able to get a mar- vellously correct idea of them. A Mount Vernon, N.Y., judge thinks that in order to obtain the best results a jury should be made to feel at home in the court-room. Accordingly he has had the stationary chairs heretofore used by jurors removed, and has reâ€" placed them with co‘mmodious reclin~ mg chairs. Judge. \Villiam Butler, delphia, who has resigned from the bench of the Linited States District Court, learned the trade of a printer 11'). the office of the \“ est Chester, Pa., \illage Record. Among the other boys in the olfice at the same time was Bayard Taylor. Mrs. Anna AI. Bach, a wealthy widow who died at st. Louis last week, he- queathed $500 for the care of a pet Canary and two dogs. This special duty was imposed upon a niece to whom Mrs. Bach left the bulk of her property, Various charitable institutions receiv- ed legacies amounting to $20,0o'0. of Phila- A great joke is reported on the "army" from Junction City, Kan. A party of eight officers on awagonette were held up by three bogus bandits and robbed. of $730, and the officers sent back to the post bareâ€"headed and on loot. The bogus bandits drove back and had all the post turn out to see the otlicers upon their return. The of- ficers were armed and equipped ready to start for Manila. Postmaster Tuttle, of Carthage, Mo., has just received from the Federal Gov- ernment a draft for $8.26 in payment of o. debt that has been running since the civil war, but of which Tuttle knew nothing. It appears that in settling wth Capt. Tuttle for his ser- vices as a soldier one day‘s pay was overlooked, and also an allowance for clothing. It took Uncle Sam 34 years to discover the error. Kansas City has adopted a trade- mark. Hereafter it will appear on all manufactured goods sent out from that city. The design was selected by the directors of the Manufacturers‘ AcSUClullou from 78 which were sub- mitted. It consists of a map of the United States, with Kansas City repre- sented. by a star in the exact; centre. Above the star hovers an eagle with outspread wings. According to advices received in New York, the millionaire mine owner, Joe. de La Mar, who came out of the west a rough, rich and eccentric miner, is now going to l‘eâ€"rnarry his divorced wrfe in Paris. This wife was Nellie Sands, a_beautilul girl, the daughter of a druggist‘. ‘L‘upttlin de La Mar set- tled a neat little trifle of $200,000 on her on his wedding day, and gave her lor'a bridal pres-mt a diamond trinket which cost just exactly $40,000. GOLD IN CLAY. It has been discovered that the clay of which our common red bricks are made contains gold, about 25 cents' worth to every ton of bricks. An in- genious person has calculated that, as there. are at least 5,000,000 tons of bricks in London, there must be at least $l,250,000 worth of the precious metal locked up in the walls of that. metropolis alone. i r l