The house it-
self is in tolerably good condition, though badly
weather-stained and in dire need of attention from
the glazier, the smaller male population of the
region having attested in the manner of its kind its
disapproval of dwelling without dwellers. It is two
stories in height, nearly square, its front pierced by
a single doorway flanked on each side by a window
boarded up to the very top. Corresponding windows
above, not protected, serve to admit light and rain
to the rooms of the upper floor. Grass and weeds
grow pretty rankly all about, and a few shade trees,
somewhat the worse for wind, and leaning all in one
direction, seem to be making a concerted effort to
run away. In short, as the Marshall town humorist
explained in the columns of the Advance, 'the prop-
osition that the Manton house is badly haunted is
the only logical conclusion from the premises.' The
fact that in this dwelling Mr. Manton thought it
expedient one night some ten years ago to rise and
cut the throats of his wife and two small children,
removing at once to another part of the country, has
no doubt done its share in directing public attention
to the fitness of the place for supernatural phe-
nomena.
To this house, one summer evening, came four
men in a wagon. Three of them promptly alighted,
and the one who had been driving hitched the team
to the only remaining post of what had been a fence.
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