In Springfield Vermont, stands the Hartness House Inn
an elegant, looming gables mansion built in 1904
once the home of James Hartness, an inventor extraordinaire
a governor of Vermont, an aviator, an industrialist and more
in want of a quieter environment, he a built a network of tunnels
under his mansion, a subterranean sanctuary with
a library, a workshop, a study and an apartment
twenty years after Hartness died in 1934, the mansion was
converted into an inn, and the ghost of Hartness is believed
to be haunting it: strange sensations, lights flickering, rocking chairs rocking by themselves, objects fly off shelves, sounds of someone murmuring
but smart as Hartness was, if he is haunting the mansion,
why couldn’t he find his way to the Light?
or is he locked into doing what he still thinks is material world work in his subterranean, tunneled haunts?
Bob Boyd