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The Haunted Shanty · Short Ghost and Horror Stories Collection

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Speaker 1: The Haunted Shanty by Bayard Tailor. As the principal personage
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Speaker 1: of this story is dead, and there is no likelihood
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Speaker 1: that any of the others will ever see the Atlantic Monthly,
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Speaker 1: I feel free to tell it without reservation. The Mercantile House,
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Speaker 1: of which I was until recently an active member, had
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Speaker 1: many business connections throughout the Western States, and I was
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Speaker 1: therefore in the habit of making an annual journey through
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Speaker 1: them in the interest of the firm. In fact, I
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Speaker 1: was always glad to escape from the dirt and hubbub
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Speaker 1: of Courtland Street, and to exchange the smell of goods
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Speaker 1: and boxes, cellars and gutters for that of prairie grass
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Speaker 1: and even of prairie mud. Although wearing the immaculate linen
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Speaker 1: and golden studs of this city Valentine, there still remained
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Speaker 1: a good deal of the country orson in my blood,
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Speaker 1: and I endured many hard, repulsive, yea downright vulgar experiences
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Speaker 1: for the sake of a run at large and the
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Speaker 1: healthy animal exaltation which accompanied it. Eight or nine years ago.
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Speaker 1: It is perhaps as well not to be very precise,
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Speaker 1: as yet with regard to day, I found myself at
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Speaker 1: Peoria in Illinois rather late in the season. The business
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Speaker 1: I had on hand was mostly transacted, but it was
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Speaker 1: still necessary that I should visit Bloomington and Terra Hout
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Speaker 1: before returning to the East. I had come from Wisconsin
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Speaker 1: in northern Illinois, and as the great railroad Spider of
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Speaker 1: Chicago had then spun but a few threads of his
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Speaker 1: present tremendous mesh, I had made the greater part of
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Speaker 1: my journey on horseback. By the time I reached Peoria,
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Speaker 1: the month of November was well advanced and the weather
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Speaker 1: had become very disagreeable. I was strongly tempted to sell
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Speaker 1: my horse and take the stage to Bloomington. But the
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Speaker 1: roads were even worse to a traveler on wheels than
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Speaker 1: to one in this saddle, and the sunny day which
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Speaker 1: followed my arrival flattered me with the hope that others
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Speaker 1: as fair might succeed it. The distance to Bloomington was
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Speaker 1: forty miles and the road none of the best. Yet,
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Speaker 1: as my horse, Peck an abbreviation of Pecatonica, had had
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Speaker 1: two days rest, I did not leave Peoria until after
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Speaker 1: the usual dinner twelve o'clock, trusting that I should reached
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Speaker 1: my destination by eight or nine in the evening. At
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Speaker 1: the latest, broad bands of dull gray felt like clouds
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Speaker 1: crossed the sky, and the wind had a rough edge
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Speaker 1: to it, which predicted that there was rain within a
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Speaker 1: day's march. The oaks along the rounded river bluffs still
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Speaker 1: held on to their leaves, although the latter were entirely
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Speaker 1: brown and dead, and rattled around me with an ominous sound.
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Speaker 1: As I climbed to the level of the prairie, leaving
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Speaker 1: the bed of the muddy Illinois below, Peck's hoofs sank
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Speaker 1: deeply into the unctuous black soil, which resembled a jetty
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Speaker 1: tallow rather than earth, and its progress was slow and toilsome.
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Speaker 1: The sky became more and more obscured, the sun faded
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Speaker 1: to a ghastly moon, than to a white blotch in
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Speaker 1: the gray vault, and finally retired in disgust. Indeed, there
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Speaker 1: was nothing in the landscape worth his contemplation. Dead flats
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Speaker 1: of black bristling with short corn stalks, flats of brown grass,
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Speaker 1: a brown belt of low woods in the distance. That
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Speaker 1: was all the horizon enclosed, no embossed bowl with its
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Speaker 1: rim of sculptured hills, its round of colored pictures, but
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Speaker 1: a flat earthen pie dish, over which the sky fell
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Speaker 1: like a pewter cover. After riding for an hour or
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Speaker 1: two over the desolate level, I descended through rattling oaks
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Speaker 1: to the bed of a stream, and then ascended through
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Speaker 1: rattling oaks to the prairie Beyond here, however, I took
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Speaker 1: the wrong road and found myself some three miles farther
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Speaker 1: at a farmhouse where it terminated. You can go out
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Speaker 1: over the prairie, yonder, said the farmer, dropping his mall
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Speaker 1: beside a rail he had just split off. Here's a
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Speaker 1: plain trail from Syke's detle, bringing on to the road
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Speaker 1: not far from the Sugar Creek. With which knowledge I
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Speaker 1: plucked up heart and rode on. What would the windings
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Speaker 1: and turnings of the various cart tracks, the family resemblance
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Speaker 1: in the groves of oak and hickory, and the heavy
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Speaker 1: uniform gray of the sky, I presently lost my compass needle,
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Speaker 1: that natural instinct direction on which I had learned to
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Speaker 1: rely East west, north, south, All were alike, and the
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Speaker 1: very doubt paralyzed the faculty. The growing darkness of the sky,
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Speaker 1: the watery moaning of the wind betoked night and storm,
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Speaker 1: but I pressed on haphazard determined at least to reach
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Speaker 1: one of the incipient villages on the Bloomington Road. After
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Speaker 1: an hour more, I found myself on the brink of
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Speaker 1: another winding hollow, threaded by a broad, shallow stream. On
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Speaker 1: the opposite side, a quarter of a mile above, stood
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Speaker 1: a rough shanty at the foot of the rice, which
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Speaker 1: led to the prairie. After fording the stream, however, I
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Speaker 1: found that the trail I had followed continued forward in
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Speaker 1: the same direction, leaving this rude settlement on the left.
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Speaker 1: On the opposite side of the hollow, the prairie again
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Speaker 1: stretched before me, Dark and flat, and destitute of any
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Speaker 1: sign of habitation, I could scarcely distinguish the trail any longer,
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Speaker 1: and half an hour I knew I should be swallowed
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Speaker 1: up in a gulf of impenetrable darkness, and there was
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Speaker 1: evidently no choice left me but to return to the
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Speaker 1: lonely shanty, and there seek shelter for the night. To
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Speaker 1: be thwarted in one's plans, even by wind or weather,
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Speaker 1: is always vexatious. But in this case, the prospect of
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Speaker 1: spending a night in the such a dismal corner of
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Speaker 1: the world was especially disagreeable. I am, or at least,
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Speaker 1: I consider myself a thoroughly matter of fact man, and
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Speaker 1: my first thought, I am not ashamed to confess, was
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Speaker 1: of oysters. Visions of a favorite saloon, and many a
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Speaker 1: pleasant supper with Dunham and beeson my partners, all at
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Speaker 1: once popped into my mind. As I returned back over
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Speaker 1: the brow of the hollow and urge pecked down its
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Speaker 1: rough slope, well thought I, at last, this will be
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Speaker 1: one more story for our next meeting. Who knows what
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Speaker 1: originals I may not find. Even in a solitary settler's shanty,
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Speaker 1: I could discover no trail in the darkness thickened rapidly
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Speaker 1: while I picked my way across dry gullies formed by
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Speaker 1: the drainage of the prairie, above rotten tree trunks, stumps,
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Speaker 1: and spots of thicket. As I approached the shanty, a
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Speaker 1: faint gleam through one of its two small windows showed
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Speaker 1: that it was inhabited. In the rear, a space of
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Speaker 1: a quarter of an acre, enclosed by a huge worm fence,
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Speaker 1: was evidently the vegetable patch at one corner, which a
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Speaker 1: small stable, roofed and buttressed with corn fodder, leaned against
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Speaker 1: the hill. I drew rein in front of the building
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Speaker 1: and was about to hail its inmates when I observed
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Speaker 1: the figure of a man issued from the stable. Even
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Speaker 1: in the gloom, there was something forlorn and dispiriting in
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Speaker 1: his walk. He approached with a slow dragging step, apparently
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Speaker 1: unaware of my presence. Good evening friend, I said. He stopped,
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Speaker 1: stood still for half a minute, and finally responded, who
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Speaker 1: are you? The tone of his voice, querulous and lamenting,
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Speaker 1: rather implied why don't you let me alone? I am
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Speaker 1: a traveler, I answered, bound from Peoria to Bloomington, and
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Speaker 1: have lost my way. It is dark, as you know,
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Speaker 1: and likely to reign, and I don't see how I
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Speaker 1: can get any farther to night. Another pause, Then he said, slowly,
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Speaker 1: as if speaking to himself, there ain't no other place
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Speaker 1: nearer an four farmh Then I hope you will let
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Speaker 1: me stay here. The answer, to my surprise was a
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Speaker 1: deep sigh. I am used to roughing it, I urged,
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Speaker 1: And besides, I will for any trouble I may give you,
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Speaker 1: Ain't that said? He then added, hesitatingly, fact he is,
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Speaker 1: We're lonesome people here don't often see strangers. Ye, I
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Speaker 1: s'pose you can't go no further. Well, i'll talk to
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Speaker 1: my wife. Therewith he entered the shanty, leaving me a
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Speaker 1: little disconcerted with so uncertain, not to say suspicious a reception.
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Speaker 1: I heard the sound of voices, one of them unmistakable
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Speaker 1: in its nasal shrillness, and what seemed to be a
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Speaker 1: harsh debate, and distinguished the words I didn't bring it on,
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Speaker 1: followed with tell him then if you like, and let
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Speaker 1: him stay, which seemed to settle the matter. The door
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Speaker 1: presently opened, and the man said, I guess we'll have
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Speaker 1: to commendate. You give me your things, and then i'll
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Speaker 1: put your horse up. I unstrapped my valise, took off
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Speaker 1: the saddle, and, having seen Peck to his fodder tent,
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Speaker 1: where I left him with some ears of corn in
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Speaker 1: an old basket, returned to the shanty. It was a
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Speaker 1: rude specimen of the article, a single room of some
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Speaker 1: thirty by fifteen feet, with a large fireplace of sticks
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Speaker 1: and clay at one end, while a half partition of
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Speaker 1: unplaned planks set on one end formed a sort of
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Speaker 1: recess for the bed at the other. A good fire
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Speaker 1: on the hearth, however, made it seem tolerably cheerful, contrasted
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Speaker 1: with the dismal gloom outside. The furniture consisted of a table,
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Speaker 1: two or three chairs, a broad bench, and a kitchen
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Speaker 1: dresser of boards, some golden ears of seed corn, a
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Speaker 1: few sides of bacon, and ropes of onions hung from
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Speaker 1: the rafters. A woman in a blue calico gown, with
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Speaker 1: a tin coffee pot in one hand and a stick
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Speaker 1: in the other, was breaking out the red coals from
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Speaker 1: under the burning logs. At my salutation, she partly turned,
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Speaker 1: looked hard at me, nodded, and muttered some inaudible words. Then,
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Speaker 1: having leveled the coals properly, she put down the coffee pot, and,
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Speaker 1: facing about, exclaimed, Jimmy, get off that cheer. Though this phrase,
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Speaker 1: short and snappish enough, was not worded as an invitation
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Speaker 1: for me to sit down, I accepted it as such,
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Speaker 1: and took the chair which a lean boy of some
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Speaker 1: nine or ten years old had hurriedly vacated. In such cases,
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Speaker 1: I had learned by experience it is not best to
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Speaker 1: be too forward, wait quietly, and allow the unwilling host
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Speaker 1: time to get accustomed to your presence. I inspected the
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Speaker 1: family for a while in silence. The spare, bony form
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Speaker 1: of the woman, her deep set gray eyes, and the long,
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Speaker 1: thin nose, which seemed to be merely a scabbard for
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Speaker 1: her sharp edged voice, gave me her character at the
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Speaker 1: first glance. As for the man, he was worn by
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Speaker 1: some constant fret or worry, rather than naturally spare. His
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Speaker 1: complexion was sallow, his face honest, every line of it,
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Speaker 1: though the expression was dejected, and there was a helpless
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Speaker 1: patience in his voice and movements, which I have often
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Speaker 1: seen in women, but never before in a man. Hinpectin
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Speaker 1: the first degree was the verdict I gave without leaving
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Speaker 1: my seat. The silence, shyness, and puny appearance of the
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Speaker 1: boy might be accounted for by the loneliness of his
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Speaker 1: life and the usual shakes. But there was a wild,
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Speaker 1: frightened look in his eye, a nervous restlessness about his limbs,
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Speaker 1: which excited my curiosity. I am no believer in those
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Speaker 1: freaks of fancy called presentiments, but I certainly felt that
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Speaker 1: there was something unpleasant, perhaps painful, in the private relations
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Speaker 1: of the family. Meanwhile, the supper gradually took shape. The
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Speaker 1: coffee was boiled far too much for my taste, bacon fried,
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Speaker 1: potatoes roasted, and certain lumps of dough transformed into farinaceous
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Speaker 1: grape shot called biscuits. Dishes of blue queensware, knives and forks,
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Speaker 1: cups and saucers of various patterns, and a bowl of
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Speaker 1: molasses were placed upon the table. And finally the woman said,
10:38
Speaker 1: speaking to though not looking at me, I suppose you
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Speaker 1: had had your supper. I accepted the imitation with a
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Speaker 1: simple no, and ate enough of the rude fare, for
10:48
Speaker 1: I was really hungry. To satisfy my host that I
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Speaker 1: was not proud, I attempted no conversation, knowing that such
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Speaker 1: people never talk when they eat, until the meal was over,
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Speaker 1: and the man who gladly took one of my cigars
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Speaker 1: was seated comfortably before the fire. I then related my story,
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Speaker 1: told my name and business, and by degrees established a
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Speaker 1: mild flow of conversation. The woman, as she washed the
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Speaker 1: dishes and cleared up things for the night, listened to
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Speaker 1: us and now, and then made a remark to the
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Speaker 1: coffee pot or frying pan evidently intended for our ears.
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Speaker 1: Some things, which she said must have been a meaning
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Speaker 1: hidden from me, for I could see that. The man winced,
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Speaker 1: and at last he ventured to say, Mary Anne, what's
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Speaker 1: the use in talkin about it? Do as you like,
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Speaker 1: she snapped back. Only I ain't goin to be blamed
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Speaker 1: for your Doin's the stranger'll find out soon enough. You
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Speaker 1: find this life rather lonely, I should think, I remarked,
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Speaker 1: with a view of giving the conversation a different turn. Lonely,
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Speaker 1: she repeated, jerking out a fragment of malicious laughter. It's
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Speaker 1: lonely enough in the daytime, Goodness knows, but you'll have
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Speaker 1: yer feel of company for mornin'. With that, she threw
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Speaker 1: a defiant glance at her husband. Fact he is, said
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Speaker 1: he shrinking from her eye. We're sort of trouble with noises.
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Speaker 1: It not Perhaps you'll be skeered, but it's no more.
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Speaker 1: Noise unpleasant, but never hurts nothin. You don't mean to
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Speaker 1: say this shanty is haunted, I asked, Well, yes, some
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Speaker 1: folks would call it. So. There is noises and things
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Speaker 1: going on, but you can't see nobody. Oh, if that
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Speaker 1: is all, said I, you need not be concerned on
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Speaker 1: my account, nothing is so strange, but the cause of
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Speaker 1: it can be discovered again. The man heaved a deep sigh.
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Speaker 1: The woman said, in rather a milder tone, what's the
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Speaker 1: good O knowin?
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Speaker 2: What makes it?
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Speaker 1: When you can't stop it? As I was neither sleepy
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Speaker 1: nor fatigued, this information was rather welcomed than otherwise. I
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Speaker 1: had full confidence in my own courage, and if anything
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Speaker 1: should happen, it would make a capital story for my
12:49
Speaker 1: first New York supper. I saw there was but one
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Speaker 1: bed and a small straw mattress on the floor beside
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Speaker 1: it for the boy, and therefore declared that I should
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Speaker 1: sleep on the bench, wrapped in my cloak. Neither objected
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Speaker 1: to this, and they presently retired. I determined, however, to
13:04
Speaker 1: keep awake as long as possible. I threw a fresh
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Speaker 1: log on the fire, lit another cigar, made a few
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Speaker 1: entries in my note book, and finally took the iron
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Speaker 1: mask of Dumass from my valise and tried to read
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Speaker 1: by the wavering flashes of the fire. In this manner,
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Speaker 1: another hour passed away. The deep breathing, not to say
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Speaker 1: snoring from the recess indicated that my hosts were sound asleep,
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Speaker 1: and the monotonous whistle of the wind around the shanty
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Speaker 1: began to exercise a lulling influence on my own senses.
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Speaker 1: Wrapping myself in my cloak with my valise for a pillow,
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Speaker 1: I stretched myself out on the bench and strove to
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Speaker 1: keep my mind occupied with conjectures concerning the sleeping family. Furthermore,
13:44
Speaker 1: I recalled all the stories of ghosts and haunted houses
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Speaker 1: which I had ever heard, constructed explanations for such as
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Speaker 1: were still unsolved, and so far from feeling any alarm,
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Speaker 1: desired nothing so much as that these supernatural performances might commence.
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Speaker 1: My thoughts, however, became grand, dually, less and less coherent,
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Speaker 1: and I was just sliding over the verge of slumber
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Speaker 1: when a faint sound in the distance caught my ear.
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Speaker 1: I listened intently. Certainly there was a far off, indistinct sound,
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Speaker 1: different from the dull, continuous sweep of the wind. I
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Speaker 1: rose on the bench, fully awake, yet not excited, for
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Speaker 1: my first thought was that other travelers might be lost
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Speaker 1: or belated. By this time, this sound was quite distinct, and,
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Speaker 1: to my great surprise, appeared to proceed from a drum
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Speaker 1: rapidly beaten. I looked at my watch. It was half
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Speaker 1: past ten. Who could be out on the lonely prairie
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Speaker 1: with a drum at that time of night. There must
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Speaker 1: have been some military festival, some political caucus, some celebration
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Speaker 1: of the Sons of Malta, or jubilation of the Society
14:45
Speaker 1: of the thousand and one, and a few of the
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Speaker 1: scattered members were enlivening their dark ride homewards. While I
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Speaker 1: was busy with these conjectures, the sound advanced nearer and nearer,
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Speaker 1: and what was very singular, without the least pause or variation,
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Speaker 1: one steady, regular roll, ringing deep and clear through the night.
15:05
Speaker 1: The shanty stood at a point where the stream, leaving
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Speaker 1: its general southwestern course, bent at a sharp angle to
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Speaker 1: the southeast and facing very nearly in the latter direction.
15:16
Speaker 1: As the sound of the drum came from the east,
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Speaker 1: it seemed the more probable that it was caused by
15:21
Speaker 1: some person on the road which crossed the creek a
15:24
Speaker 1: quarter of a mile below. Yet on approaching nearer, it
15:27
Speaker 1: made directly for the shanty, moving evidently much more rapidly
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Speaker 1: than a person could walk. It then flashed upon my
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Speaker 1: mind that this was the noise I was to hear.
15:38
Speaker 1: This was the company I was to expect, louder and louder, deep,
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Speaker 1: strong and reverberating rolling, as if for a battle charge
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Speaker 1: came on. It was now but a hundred yards distant,
15:51
Speaker 1: now but fifty ten, just outside the rough clapboard wall.
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Speaker 1: But while I had half risen to open the door,
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Speaker 1: it passed directly through and sounded at my very ears.
16:02
Speaker 1: Inside the shanty, the logs burned brightly on the hearth.
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Speaker 1: Every object in the room could be seen more or
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Speaker 1: less distinctly. Nothing was out of its place, nothing disturbed.
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Speaker 1: Yet the rafters almost shook under the roll of an
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Speaker 1: invisible drum beaten by invisible hands. The sleepers tossed restlessly
16:19
Speaker 1: in a deep groan, as if in semi dream came
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Speaker 1: from the man. Utterly confounded as I was, my sensations
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Speaker 1: were not those of terror. Each moment I doubted my senses,
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Speaker 1: and each moment the terrific sound convinced me anew. I
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Speaker 1: do not know how long I sat thus in sheer,
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Speaker 1: stupid amazement. It may have been one minute or fifteen
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Speaker 1: before the drum, passing over my head through the boards
16:41
Speaker 1: again commenced a slow march around the shanty. When it
16:45
Speaker 1: had finished the first and was about commencing the second round,
16:48
Speaker 1: I shook off my stupor and determined to probe the mystery.
16:52
Speaker 1: Opening the door, I advanced in an opposite direction to
16:54
Speaker 1: meet it again. The sound passed close beside my head,
16:59
Speaker 1: but I could see nothing, touched nothing. Again, it entered
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Speaker 1: the shanty, and I followed. I stirred up the fire,
17:05
Speaker 1: casting a strong illumination into the dark corners. I thrust
17:09
Speaker 1: my hand into the very heart of the sound. I
17:11
Speaker 1: struck through it in all directions with a stick. Still
17:14
Speaker 1: I saw nothing, touched nothing. Of course, I do not
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Speaker 1: expect to be believed by half my readers, nor can
17:20
Speaker 1: I blame them for their incredulity, so astounding as the
17:23
Speaker 1: circumstance even yet to myself, that I should doubt its reality,
17:27
Speaker 1: were it not therefore necessary for the same reason to
17:30
Speaker 1: doubt every event of my life. At length, the sound
17:33
Speaker 1: moved away in the direction whence it came, becoming gradually
17:36
Speaker 1: fainter and fainter, until it died in the distance. But
17:40
Speaker 1: immediately afterwards, from the same quarter came a thin, sharp
17:43
Speaker 1: blast of wind, or what seemed to be such If
17:47
Speaker 1: one could imagine a swift, intense stream of air no
17:50
Speaker 1: thicker than a telegraph wire, producing a keen, whistling rush
17:53
Speaker 1: and its passage, he would understand the impression made upon
17:56
Speaker 1: my mind. This wind, or sound, or whatever it was,
18:02
Speaker 1: seemed to strike an invisible target in the center of
18:04
Speaker 1: the room, and thereupon ensued a new and worse confusion.
18:10
Speaker 1: Sounds as of huge planks lifted at one end and
18:12
Speaker 1: then allowed to fall slamming upon the floor. Hard wooden claps, crashes,
18:17
Speaker 1: and noises of splitting and snapping filled the shanty. The
18:21
Speaker 1: rough boards of the floor jarred and trembled, and the
18:23
Speaker 1: table and chairs were jolted off their feet. Instinctively, I
18:27
Speaker 1: jerked away my legs whenever the invisible planks fell too
18:30
Speaker 1: near them. It never came into my mind to charge
18:33
Speaker 1: the family with being the authors of these phenomena. Their
18:36
Speaker 1: care and distress were too evident. There was certainly no
18:39
Speaker 1: other human being but myself in or near the shanty.
18:43
Speaker 1: My senses of sight and touch availed me nothing, and
18:46
Speaker 1: I confined my attention at last to simply noting the manifestations,
18:50
Speaker 1: without attempting to explain them. I began to experience a
18:53
Speaker 1: feeling not of terror, but of disturbing uncertainty. The solid
18:58
Speaker 1: ground was taken from beneath my feet. Still, the man
19:02
Speaker 1: and his wife groaned and muttered as if in a
19:04
Speaker 1: nightmare sleep, and the boy tossed restlessly on his low bed.
19:08
Speaker 1: I would not disturb them, since by their own confession,
19:10
Speaker 1: they were accustomed to the visitation. Besides, it would not
19:14
Speaker 1: assist me, and so long as there was no danger
19:17
Speaker 1: of personal injury, I preferred to watch alone. I recalled, however,
19:21
Speaker 1: the woman's remarks, remembering the mysterious blame she had thrown
19:24
Speaker 1: upon her husband, and felt certain that she had adopted
19:26
Speaker 1: some explanation of the noises at his expense. As the
19:30
Speaker 1: confusion continued with more or less violence, sometimes pausing for
19:34
Speaker 1: a few minutes to begin again with renewed force, I
19:37
Speaker 1: felt an increasing impression of somebody else being present outside
19:42
Speaker 1: the shanty. This feeling ceased, but every time I opened
19:45
Speaker 1: the door, I fully expected to see some one standing
19:47
Speaker 1: in the center of the room. Yet looking through the
19:51
Speaker 1: little windows when the noises were at their loudest, I
19:53
Speaker 1: could discover nothing. Two hours had passed away since I
19:56
Speaker 1: first heard the drum beat, and I found myself at last,
19:59
Speaker 1: completely wearied with my fruitless exertions and the unusual excitement.
20:04
Speaker 1: By this time the disturbances had become faint, with more
20:07
Speaker 1: frequent pauses. All at once I heard a long, weary sigh,
20:11
Speaker 1: so near me that it could not have proceeded from
20:13
Speaker 1: the sleepers. A weak moan expressive of utter wretchedness followed,
20:19
Speaker 1: and then came the words, in a woman's voice came.
20:21
Speaker 1: I know not whence, for they seemed to be utterly
20:24
Speaker 1: close beside me, and yet far far away.
20:27
Speaker 2: How great is my trouble? How long shall I suffer?
20:31
Speaker 2: I was married, in the sight of God to eber Nicholson.
20:36
Speaker 2: Have mercy, O Lord, and give him to me, or
20:38
Speaker 2: release me from him?
20:41
Speaker 1: These were the words, not spoken, but rather moaned forth
20:44
Speaker 1: in a slow, monotonous wail of utter helplessness and broken heartedness.
20:48
Speaker 1: I have heard human grief expressed in many forms, but
20:52
Speaker 1: I never heard or imagined anything so desolate, so surcharged
20:55
Speaker 1: with the despair of an eternal woe. It was indeed
20:59
Speaker 1: too hopeless for sympathy. It was the utterance of a
21:02
Speaker 1: sorrow which removed its possessor into some dark, lonely world
21:06
Speaker 1: girled with iron walls, against which every throb of a
21:09
Speaker 1: helping or consoling heart would beat in vain for admittance.
21:13
Speaker 1: So far from being moved or softened, the words left
21:16
Speaker 1: upon me an impression of stolid apathy. When they had ceased,
21:21
Speaker 1: I heard another sigh, and some time afterwards, far off,
21:24
Speaker 1: retreating forlornly through the eastern darkness, the wailing repetition I
21:29
Speaker 1: was married, in the sight of God, to eber Nicholson.
21:34
Speaker 1: Have mercy, O Lord. This was the last of those
21:37
Speaker 1: midnight marvels. Nothing further disturbed the night except the steady
21:41
Speaker 1: sound of the wind. The more I thought of what
21:44
Speaker 1: I had heard, the more I was convinced that the
21:47
Speaker 1: phenomena were connected in some way with the history of
21:50
Speaker 1: my host. I had heard his wife call him Ebb,
21:53
Speaker 1: and did not doubt that he was the eber Nicholson, who,
21:56
Speaker 1: for some mysterious crime, was haunted by the reproachful ghost
22:00
Speaker 1: could murder, or worse than murder, lurk behind those visitations.
22:05
Speaker 1: It was useless to conjecture. Yet, before giving myself up
22:08
Speaker 1: to sleep, I determined to know everything that could be
22:10
Speaker 1: known before leaving the shanty. My rest was disturbed, My
22:14
Speaker 1: hip bones pressed unpleasantly on the hard bench, and every
22:17
Speaker 1: now and then I awoke with a start, hearing the
22:20
Speaker 1: same despairing voice in my dreams. The place was always quiet. Nevertheless,
22:24
Speaker 1: the disturbances having ceased as nearly as I could judge,
22:27
Speaker 1: about one o'clock in the morning. Finally, from sheer weariness,
22:31
Speaker 1: I fell into a deep slumber, which lasted until daylight.
22:35
Speaker 1: The sounds of pans and kettles aroused me. The woman,
22:38
Speaker 1: in her lank blue gown was bending over the fire.
22:41
Speaker 1: The man and boy had already gone out. As I rose,
22:44
Speaker 1: rubbing my eyes and shaking myself to find out exactly
22:47
Speaker 1: where and who I was. The woman straightened herself and
22:50
Speaker 1: looked at me with a keen, questioning gaze, but said nothing.
22:54
Speaker 1: I must have been very sound asleep, said I. There's
22:58
Speaker 1: no sound sleep in here. Don't tell me that. Well,
23:02
Speaker 1: I answered, your shanty is rather noisy, but as I'm
23:06
Speaker 1: neither scared nor hurt, there's no harm done. But if
23:09
Speaker 1: you never found out what occasions the noise, Her reply
23:13
Speaker 1: was a toss of the head and a peculiar snorting interjection. Humph,
23:18
Speaker 1: impossible to be represented by letters it's all her doing.
23:22
Speaker 1: But who is she? You'd better ask him? Seeing there
23:27
Speaker 1: was nothing to be got out of her, I went
23:29
Speaker 1: down to the stream, washed my face, dried it with
23:32
Speaker 1: my pocket handkerchief, and then looked after Peck. He gave
23:36
Speaker 1: a shrill whinny of recognition, and I thought seemed to
23:38
Speaker 1: be a little restless. A fresh feed of corn was
23:41
Speaker 1: in the old basket, and presently the man came into
23:43
Speaker 1: the stable with a bunch of hay and commenced rubbing
23:46
Speaker 1: off the marks of Peck's oozy couch, which were left
23:48
Speaker 1: on his flanks. As we went back to the shanty,
23:51
Speaker 1: I noticed that he eyed me furtively, without daring to
23:54
Speaker 1: look me full in the face. As I was apparently
23:57
Speaker 1: none the worse for the night's experiences, he rallied at
24:00
Speaker 1: last and ventured to talk at as well as to me.
24:04
Speaker 1: By this time, breakfast, which was a repetition of supper,
24:07
Speaker 1: was ready, and we sat down to the table. During
24:10
Speaker 1: the meal, it occurred to me to make an experimental remark.
24:13
Speaker 1: Turning suddenly to the man, I asked, is your name
24:16
Speaker 1: eber Nicholson? There exclaimed a woman I knowed he heard it. He, however,
24:22
Speaker 1: flushing a moment, and then becoming more sallow than ever,
24:25
Speaker 1: nodded first, and then, as if that were not sufficient,
24:29
Speaker 1: added yes, that's my name. Where did you move from?
24:33
Speaker 1: I continued, falling back on the first plan I had
24:36
Speaker 1: formed in my mind, the Western Reserve, not far from Hudson.
24:41
Speaker 1: I turned the conversation on the comparative advantages of Ohio
24:44
Speaker 1: and Illinois, on farming, the price of land, et cetera,
24:47
Speaker 1: carefully avoiding the dangerous subject, and by the time breakfast
24:51
Speaker 1: was over, had arranged that for a consideration, he should
24:54
Speaker 1: accompany me as far as the Bloomington Road, some five
24:57
Speaker 1: miles distant, while he went out to cat an old
25:00
Speaker 1: horse ranging loose in the creek bottom. I saddled peck
25:04
Speaker 1: strapped on my valise and made myself ready for the journey.
25:07
Speaker 1: The feeling of two silver half dollars and her hard
25:10
Speaker 1: palm melted down the woman's aggressive mood, and she said
25:13
Speaker 1: with a voice the edge whereof was mightily blunted. Thank ye,
25:17
Speaker 1: it's too much for stitches you had. It's the best
25:21
Speaker 1: you can give. I replied, that's so, said she, jerking
25:26
Speaker 1: my hand up and down with a pumping movement. As
25:28
Speaker 1: I took leave. I felt a sense of relief when
25:30
Speaker 1: we had climbed the rise and had the open prairie
25:33
Speaker 1: again before us. The sky was overcast and the wind
25:36
Speaker 1: was strong, but some rain had fallen during the night,
25:39
Speaker 1: and the clouds had lifted themselves again. The air was
25:42
Speaker 1: fresh and damp, but not chill. We rode slowly, of necessity,
25:46
Speaker 1: for the mud was deeper than ever. I deliberated what
25:50
Speaker 1: course I should take in order to draw from my
25:52
Speaker 1: guide the explanation of the nightly noises is evident. Shrinking
25:56
Speaker 1: whenever his wife referred to the subject, convinced me that
25:59
Speaker 1: a gradual of aproach would render him shy and uneasy.
26:02
Speaker 1: And on the whole it seemed best to surprise him
26:04
Speaker 1: by a sudden assault. Let me strike to the heart
26:07
Speaker 1: of the secret at once, I thought, and the details
26:09
Speaker 1: will come of themselves. While I was thus reflecting, he
26:13
Speaker 1: rode quietly by my side, half turning in the saddle.
26:16
Speaker 1: I looked steadily at his face, and said, in an
26:18
Speaker 1: earnest voice, eber Nicholson, who was it to whom you
26:21
Speaker 1: were married? In the sight of God? He started, as
26:25
Speaker 1: if struck, looked at me imploringly, turned away his eyes,
26:28
Speaker 1: then looked back, became very pale, and finally said, in
26:32
Speaker 1: a broken, hesitating voice, as if the words were forced
26:34
Speaker 1: from him against his will. Her name is Rachel Emmons.
26:40
Speaker 1: Why did you murder her? I asked, in a still
26:43
Speaker 1: sterner voice. In an instant, his face burned scarlet. He
26:47
Speaker 1: reined up his horse with a violent pull, straightened his
26:49
Speaker 1: shoulder so that he appeared six inches taller, looked steadily
26:53
Speaker 1: at me with a strange mixed expression of anger and astonishment,
26:57
Speaker 1: and cried out, murder her. Why she's living now? My
27:02
Speaker 1: surprise at the answer was scarcely less great than his
27:05
Speaker 1: at the question. You don't mean to say she's not dead,
27:09
Speaker 1: I asked, why, No, said he, recovering from his sudden excitement.
27:14
Speaker 1: She's not dead, or she wouldn't keep on trouble in me.
27:18
Speaker 1: She's been living in Toledo these ten year. I beg
27:22
Speaker 1: your pardon, my friend, said I. But I don't know
27:25
Speaker 1: what to think of what I heard last night. I
27:27
Speaker 1: suppose I have the old notion in my head that
27:29
Speaker 1: all ghosts are persons who have been murdered. Oh if
27:33
Speaker 1: I had yielder, he groaned, I'd have been hung long ago,
27:37
Speaker 1: and there'd have been an end to it. Tell me
27:41
Speaker 1: the whole story, said I. It's hardly likely that I
27:44
Speaker 1: can help you, but I can understand how you must
27:46
Speaker 1: be troubled, and I'm sure I pity you from my heart.
27:49
Speaker 1: I think he felt relieved at my proposal, glad perhaps
27:52
Speaker 1: after long silence, to confide to another man the secret
27:55
Speaker 1: of his lonely, wretched life. After what you've heard, said he.
28:00
Speaker 1: There's nothing I don't care to tell. I've been sinful,
28:03
Speaker 1: no doubt, But God knows there never was a man
28:06
Speaker 1: worse punished I told you, he continued, after a pause.
28:11
Speaker 1: Did I come from the Western Reserve. My father was
28:14
Speaker 1: a middlin, well to do farmer, not rich nor yet
28:17
Speaker 1: exactly poor. He's dead now, An he was always a
28:21
Speaker 1: saving man, looked after money a little too sharp, I've
28:26
Speaker 1: often thought since, how'ever, tisn't my place to judge him. Well.
28:30
Speaker 1: I was brought up on the farm to hard work
28:32
Speaker 1: like the other boys. Rachel Emmons, and she's the same
28:35
Speaker 1: woman that haunts me. You understand. She was a girl
28:38
Speaker 1: of one of your neighbors. An poor enough he was.
28:41
Speaker 1: His wife is always sickly like and you know it
28:44
Speaker 1: takes a woman as well as a man to get
28:45
Speaker 1: rich farmin' so they were always scrimped. But I didn't
28:49
Speaker 1: hinder Rachael from being one of the likeliest gals round.
28:52
Speaker 1: We went to the same school in the winter. Hearn me.
28:56
Speaker 1: Tisn't much school an I ever got, though none had
28:59
Speaker 1: a sort of natural hankering after as far back as
29:02
Speaker 1: I can remember. She was different looking then from what
29:04
Speaker 1: she is now, and me too for that matter. Well,
29:08
Speaker 1: you know how boys and gallis somehow get to liking
29:11
Speaker 1: each other before they know it. Me and rachel was
29:13
Speaker 1: more and more together the more we growed up, only
29:16
Speaker 1: more secret like. So by the time I was twenty
29:19
Speaker 1: and she was nineteen, we was promised to one another
29:22
Speaker 1: as true as could be. I didn't keep company with her,
29:25
Speaker 1: though at least way he's not regular. I was a
29:28
Speaker 1: feared my fadder'd find out, and I knowed what he'd
29:31
Speaker 1: say to it. He kept giving me hints about mary
29:33
Speaker 1: Anne Jones. That was my wife's maiden name. Her father
29:37
Speaker 1: had two hundred acres and money out in interest and
29:40
Speaker 1: only three children. He'd had ten, but seven of them died.
29:44
Speaker 1: I had nothing against mary Anne, but I never thought
29:46
Speaker 1: of her that way like I did toward Rachel. Well,
29:50
Speaker 1: things kept running on. I was a good deal worried
29:52
Speaker 1: about it, but a young feller, you know, don't look
29:55
Speaker 1: fur ahead. And so I got along one night Houseoever,
29:59
Speaker 1: twas just about dark as last night was. I've been
30:02
Speaker 1: to the store to corners for a jug of molasses.
30:05
Speaker 1: Rachel was there getting a quarter a pound of tea
30:08
Speaker 1: and I think it was, and some sewing thread. I
30:11
Speaker 1: went out a little while after her and follow her
30:14
Speaker 1: as fast as I could, for we had the same
30:16
Speaker 1: road and not a home. It warn't long before I
30:19
Speaker 1: overtook her. Twas mighty dark, as I was saying, and
30:22
Speaker 1: so I hooked her arm into mine, and we went
30:25
Speaker 1: uncomfortable together, talking about how we just suited each other,
30:28
Speaker 1: like we was cut out a purpose, and how long
30:31
Speaker 1: we'd have to wait, and what folks would say, Oh lord,
30:34
Speaker 1: don't I remember every word of that night. Well, we
30:37
Speaker 1: got quite tender like when we come told emmon's gatin'
30:40
Speaker 1: up and give her a hug and a lot of
30:42
Speaker 1: kisses to make up for lost time. Then she went
30:45
Speaker 1: into the house and I turned for home. But I
30:47
Speaker 1: hadn't gone ten steps before I come again. Somebody standing
30:51
Speaker 1: in the middle of the road, Hello, says I. Next thing,
30:55
Speaker 1: he had a hold to my coat collar and shuck
30:57
Speaker 1: me like a tarrier dog shakes a rat. I knowed
31:00
Speaker 1: whose it was before he spoke, and I couldn't have
31:02
Speaker 1: been more skeered if the life had all gone out
31:04
Speaker 1: of me. He had been down a tavern to set
31:07
Speaker 1: a drover, and coming home he'd followed us behind all
31:10
Speaker 1: the way, hearing every word we said. I don't like
31:13
Speaker 1: to think of the words he used that night. He
31:16
Speaker 1: was a professing member, and yet he swore to awfullest
31:19
Speaker 1: I ever heard here. The man involuntarily raised his hands
31:23
Speaker 1: to his ears, as if to stop them against the
31:25
Speaker 1: memory of his father's curses. I expected every minute he'd
31:29
Speaker 1: have struck me down. I wish since he had. I
31:33
Speaker 1: don't think I could have stood that. Howsoever. He'd dragged
31:37
Speaker 1: me home, never letting go my caller till we got
31:39
Speaker 1: into the room where Mother was setting up for us.
31:42
Speaker 1: Then he told her only making it ten times harder
31:44
Speaker 1: than it really was. Mother always kind of liked Rachel
31:48
Speaker 1: because she was mighty handy at sewing and quilton, but
31:51
Speaker 1: she'd no more dared stand up again father than a
31:54
Speaker 1: sheep again a bulldog. She looked up at me pitying
31:57
Speaker 1: like I must say, and just begin to cry. And
32:00
Speaker 1: I couldn't help crying another when I saw how it
32:03
Speaker 1: hurt her. Well after that, and t wasn't no use
32:06
Speaker 1: thinking of Rachel any more. I had to go to
32:08
Speaker 1: Old Jones's, whether I wanted to or no. I felt
32:12
Speaker 1: mighty mean when I thought of Rachel, and was a
32:15
Speaker 1: feared no good had come of it. But Father just
32:19
Speaker 1: managed things his way, and I couldn't help myself. Old
32:23
Speaker 1: Jones had nothing again me, for I was a steady
32:25
Speaker 1: hard workin Feller as there was around, and Marianne was
32:28
Speaker 1: always as pleasant as could be. Then well, I ought
32:31
Speaker 1: to say nothing again her. Now she's a hard life
32:34
Speaker 1: of it alongside of me. Before long we were bespoke
32:38
Speaker 1: in the days said father heard things when it got
32:41
Speaker 1: that fur I don't think Rachel knowed anything about it
32:44
Speaker 1: till the day afore the weddin, or maybe the very day.
32:48
Speaker 1: Old mister Lairby was the minister, and there was only
32:51
Speaker 1: the two families at the house, and Miss Plankerton heard
32:55
Speaker 1: it sewed for mary Anne. I never felt so uneasy
32:59
Speaker 1: in my life though a try hard not to show it. Well.
33:02
Speaker 1: It was all just over and the kissing about to begin.
33:04
Speaker 1: When I heard the house door burst open sudden, I
33:08
Speaker 1: felt my heart give one jump right up to the
33:10
Speaker 1: root of my tongue, and then fall back again, sick
33:13
Speaker 1: and deadlight. The parlor door flew open right away, and
33:17
Speaker 1: income Rachel, without a bonnet, and her hair all frowls
33:20
Speaker 1: by the wind. She was as white as a sheet,
33:22
Speaker 1: and her eyes like two burning coals. She walked straight
33:26
Speaker 1: through them all and stood right afore me. They was
33:29
Speaker 1: all so taking them back, they never thought of stopping her.
33:32
Speaker 1: Then she kind of screeched out, eber Nicholson, what are
33:35
Speaker 1: you doing? Her voice was strained and unnatural like, and
33:38
Speaker 1: I'd never knowed it to be her, And if I
33:40
Speaker 1: hadn't a seen her, I couldn't take my eyes off her,
33:44
Speaker 1: and I couldn't speak. I just stood there. Then she
33:47
Speaker 1: said again, ebberd Nicholson, what are you doing? You were
33:50
Speaker 1: married to me in the sight of God. You belong
33:53
Speaker 1: to me and I to you, forever and forever. Then
33:55
Speaker 1: they begun crying out, go away, take her away? What
33:59
Speaker 1: she mean? An old mister lairby catch hold her arm.
34:03
Speaker 1: She began to jerk and tremble all over. She drawled
34:06
Speaker 1: in her breath in a sort of groaning way, awful
34:09
Speaker 1: to hear, and then drop down on the floor in
34:11
Speaker 1: a fit. I bust out in a terrible spell of crime.
34:15
Speaker 1: I couldn't helped it, to save my life. The man paused,
34:19
Speaker 1: drew his sleeve across his eyes, and then timidly looked
34:21
Speaker 1: at me, seeing nothing in my face, doubtless, but an
34:24
Speaker 1: expression of the profoundest commiseration, he remarked with a more
34:28
Speaker 1: assured voice, as if in self justification. It was a
34:32
Speaker 1: pretty hard thing for a man to go through with, now,
34:35
Speaker 1: wasn't it. You may well say that, said I. Your
34:39
Speaker 1: story is not yet finished. However, this Rachel Emmons, you'd say,
34:43
Speaker 1: she is still living in what way does she cause
34:47
Speaker 1: the disturbances? I'll tell you all I know about it,
34:51
Speaker 1: said he. And if you understand it, then you're wiser
34:55
Speaker 1: than I am. After they carried her home, she had
34:58
Speaker 1: a long spell of sickness, come near dinin, they said,
35:01
Speaker 1: But they brought her through at last, and she got
35:04
Speaker 1: about again, looking ten years older. I kept out of
35:08
Speaker 1: her sight, though I lived a while at old Jones's
35:10
Speaker 1: till I could find a good farm to rent or
35:13
Speaker 1: a cheapened to buy. I wanted to get out of
35:15
Speaker 1: the neighborhood. I was an easy all the time, beIN
35:18
Speaker 1: so near Rachel. Her mother was worse, and her father
35:22
Speaker 1: failin like to mother seen him often. She was as
35:25
Speaker 1: good a neighbor to em as she dared be well.
35:28
Speaker 1: I got so tired, AN went out to Michigan and
35:31
Speaker 1: bought a likely farm. Old Jones give me a start.
35:35
Speaker 1: I took Mary Anne out an we got along well
35:37
Speaker 1: enough about her two year We heared from home now,
35:41
Speaker 1: and then Rachel's father and mother both died by that time.
35:44
Speaker 1: We had her first boy, him that you've seen, and
35:47
Speaker 1: she went off to Toledo. We heered a hired out
35:51
Speaker 1: to do so an. She was always a mighty good
35:54
Speaker 1: hand at it, and could cut out as nice as
35:56
Speaker 1: a born mantimaker. She had had another fit after the funerals,
36:00
Speaker 1: and was older looking and more serious than ever. They said, Well,
36:05
Speaker 1: Jimmy was six months old or so when we begun
36:07
Speaker 1: to be woke up every night by his crying. Nothing
36:10
Speaker 1: seemed to be the matter with him. He was only
36:12
Speaker 1: frightened like and couldn't be quieted. I heard noises, sometimes
36:17
Speaker 1: nothing like what come afterwards, but sort of cracking, snapping
36:20
Speaker 1: stitches you hear in new furniture, and it seemed like
36:24
Speaker 1: somebody was in the room, but I couldn't find Nothing.
36:27
Speaker 1: Got worse and was mary Anne was sure the house
36:30
Speaker 1: was haunted, and I had to let her go home
36:32
Speaker 1: for a whole winter. When she was away, it went
36:35
Speaker 1: on the same as ever, not every night, sometimes to
36:37
Speaker 1: no more than once the week, but so louds to
36:40
Speaker 1: wake me up regular. I sent word to Marianne to
36:43
Speaker 1: come on, and I'd sell out and go to Illinois.
36:46
Speaker 1: Good Pereira Land was cheaped in and I'd rather go
36:49
Speaker 1: further off for the sake of quiet. So we pulled
36:52
Speaker 1: up steaks and come out here. But it weren't long afford.
36:55
Speaker 1: The noise followed us worse than ever, and we found
36:58
Speaker 1: out at last what it was. One night I woke
37:01
Speaker 1: up with my hair standing on in and hear Rachel
37:04
Speaker 1: Emmon's voice, just as you heard it last night. Marianne
37:08
Speaker 1: heard it too, and it's a little piece she's given
37:10
Speaker 1: me since that time, and so as it's been going
37:13
Speaker 1: on and on. He is eight or nine year, But
37:17
Speaker 1: I asked, are you sure she is alive? Have you
37:20
Speaker 1: seen her since? Have you asked her to be merciful
37:22
Speaker 1: and not disturb you? Yes, said he with a bitterness
37:27
Speaker 1: of tone which seemed quite to obliterate the softer memories
37:30
Speaker 1: of his love. I've seen her, and I've begged her
37:34
Speaker 1: on my knees to let me alone. But it's no use.
37:37
Speaker 1: When it got to be so bad, I couldn't stand it,
37:39
Speaker 1: I sent a letter, but I never got no answer.
37:42
Speaker 1: Next year, when our second boy died, frightened and worried
37:45
Speaker 1: to death, I believe, though he was scrowny enough when
37:47
Speaker 1: he was born. I took some money i'd save to
37:50
Speaker 1: buy yoke oxen and went to Toledo a purpose to
37:53
Speaker 1: see Rachel. Cut me offul to do it, but I
37:56
Speaker 1: was desperate. I found her living in the little house
37:59
Speaker 1: with a bit of guard she'd bought. I suppose she
38:03
Speaker 1: must have had five or six hundred dollars when the
38:05
Speaker 1: farm was sold, and she made a good deal by
38:07
Speaker 1: some one. Besides, she was sitting at her work when
38:10
Speaker 1: I went in, and knowed me at once, though I
38:12
Speaker 1: don't believe i'd ever knowed her. She was old and
38:16
Speaker 1: thin and hard looking. Her mouth was pale and sought
38:19
Speaker 1: like she was biting something all the time, and her eyes,
38:24
Speaker 1: they was sunk in her head seemed to look through
38:26
Speaker 1: and through and away out the other side of you.
38:30
Speaker 1: It just shut me up. When she looked at me,
38:32
Speaker 1: she was so corpse like. I was afraid she dropped
38:35
Speaker 1: dead then and there. But I made out at last
38:37
Speaker 1: to say, Rachel, I've come all away from Illinois to
38:40
Speaker 1: see you. She kept looking straight at me, never saying
38:43
Speaker 1: a word. Rachel said, I I know I've acted bad
38:47
Speaker 1: towards you. God knows I didn't mean to do it.
38:49
Speaker 1: I don't blame you for paying it back to me
38:51
Speaker 1: the way you're doing. But Marianne and the boy never
38:54
Speaker 1: done you no harm. I've come all the way of
38:56
Speaker 1: purpose to ask your forgiveness, hoping you'll be satisfied what's
38:59
Speaker 1: been done and leave off baron malice again us. She
39:04
Speaker 1: looked kind of sorrowful like, but drawed a deep breath
39:07
Speaker 1: and shook her head. Oh, Rachel says I, and afore
39:12
Speaker 1: I knowed it, I was right down on my knees
39:13
Speaker 1: at her feet. Rachel, don't be so hard on me.
39:17
Speaker 1: I'm the unhappiest man that lives. I can't stand it
39:20
Speaker 1: no longer, Rachel. You didn't used to be so cruel
39:23
Speaker 1: when we was boys and girls together. Do forgive me
39:26
Speaker 1: and leave off haunt me? So then she spoke up
39:29
Speaker 1: at last and says she eber Nicholson, I was married
39:33
Speaker 1: to you in the sight of God. I know it,
39:37
Speaker 1: says I. You say it to me ever night, and
39:39
Speaker 1: it wasn't my doings that you're not my wife now.
39:42
Speaker 1: But Rachel, if I'd have betrayed you and ruined you
39:45
Speaker 1: and killed you, God couldn't have punished me worse than
39:48
Speaker 1: you are punishing me. She give a kind of groan
39:51
Speaker 1: and two tears run down her white face. Eber Nicholson
39:56
Speaker 1: says she ask God to help you, for I can't.
40:00
Speaker 1: There might have been a time, says she, when I
40:02
Speaker 1: could have done it, but it's too late now. Don't
40:06
Speaker 1: say that, Rachel, says I. It's never too late to
40:09
Speaker 1: be merciful and forgiving. It doesn't depend on myself, says she.
40:15
Speaker 1: I'm sent to you. It's the only comfort I have
40:18
Speaker 1: in life to be near you. But I give up
40:21
Speaker 1: that if I couldn't pray to God to let me die,
40:23
Speaker 1: for then we shall both have rest. And that was
40:26
Speaker 1: all I could get out of her. I come home again,
40:29
Speaker 1: knowing I'd spent my money for nothing. Since then, it's
40:33
Speaker 1: just been the same as before, not regular every night,
40:36
Speaker 1: but sort of comes on by spells, and then stops
40:39
Speaker 1: three or four days, and then comes on again. The
40:41
Speaker 1: fact is, what's the use of living in this way?
40:44
Speaker 1: We can't be neighborly. We're feared to have anybody come
40:47
Speaker 1: to see us. We've got no peace, no comfort of
40:49
Speaker 1: being together, and no heart to work and get ahead
40:52
Speaker 1: like other folks. It's just killing me body and soul.
40:58
Speaker 1: Here the poor wretch fairly broke down, bursting suddenly into
41:02
Speaker 1: an uncontrollable fit of weeping. I waited quietly until the
41:05
Speaker 1: violence of his passion had subsided. A misery so strange,
41:10
Speaker 1: so completely out of the range of human experience, so hopeless,
41:14
Speaker 1: apparently was not to be reached by the ordinary utterances
41:17
Speaker 1: of consolation. I had seen enough to enable me fully
41:21
Speaker 1: to understand the fearful nature of the retribution which had
41:24
Speaker 1: been visited upon him for what it was, at worst,
41:27
Speaker 1: a weakness to be pitied, rather than a sin to
41:29
Speaker 1: be chastised. Never was a man worse punished, he had
41:34
Speaker 1: truly said. But I was as far as ever from
41:37
Speaker 1: comprehending the secret of those nightly visitations. The statement of
41:41
Speaker 1: Rachel Emmons that they were now produced without her will overturned,
41:46
Speaker 1: supposing it to be true, the conjecture which I might
41:49
Speaker 1: otherwise have adopted. However, it was now plain that the
41:52
Speaker 1: unhappy victim sobbing at my side, could throw no further
41:55
Speaker 1: light on the mystery. He had told me all he knew,
41:59
Speaker 1: my friend, said I, when he had become calmer. I
42:02
Speaker 1: do not wonder at your desperation. Such continual torment as
42:06
Speaker 1: you must have endured is enough to drive a man
42:08
Speaker 1: to madness. It seems to me to spring from the
42:11
Speaker 1: malice of some infernal power, rather than the righteous justice
42:14
Speaker 1: of God. Have you never tried to resist it? Have
42:17
Speaker 1: you never called aloud in your heart for divine help
42:19
Speaker 1: and gathered up your strength to meet and defy it
42:22
Speaker 1: as you would meet a man who threatened your life.
42:26
Speaker 1: Not in the right way, I'm afeared, said he. Fact is,
42:29
Speaker 1: I always took it as a judgment hanging over me,
42:32
Speaker 1: and never thought of nothing else than just a grin
42:34
Speaker 1: and bear it. Enough of that I urged for a
42:37
Speaker 1: hope of relief, had suggested itself to me. You have
42:40
Speaker 1: suffered enough and more than enough. Now stand up to
42:43
Speaker 1: meet it like a man. When the noises come again,
42:45
Speaker 1: think of what you have endured, and let it make
42:47
Speaker 1: you indignant and determined. Decide in your heart that you
42:51
Speaker 1: will be free from it. And perhaps you may be so.
42:54
Speaker 1: If not, build another shanty and sleep away from your
42:56
Speaker 1: wife and boy so that they may escape. At least
42:59
Speaker 1: give yourself this claim to your wife's gratitude, and she
43:01
Speaker 1: will be kind and forbearing. I don't know what you're
43:06
Speaker 1: more than a half right stranger, he replied in a
43:08
Speaker 1: more cheerful tone. Fact is I never thought on it
43:12
Speaker 1: that way. It's light in my heart, a heap telling you,
43:15
Speaker 1: And if I'm not too broke and used up like,
43:19
Speaker 1: I'll try to follow your advice. I couldn't marry Rachel
43:22
Speaker 1: now if mary Anne was dead. We've been drove so
43:25
Speaker 1: far apart. I don't know how it'll be when we're
43:27
Speaker 1: all dead. I suppose them will go together. It belongs together,
43:31
Speaker 1: leastways taught to be so. Here we struck the Bloomington Road,
43:36
Speaker 1: and I no longer needed a guide. When we pulled
43:38
Speaker 1: our horses around, facing each other, I noticed that the
43:41
Speaker 1: flush of excitement still burned on the man's sallow cheek,
43:44
Speaker 1: and his eyes washed by probably the first freshet of
43:47
Speaker 1: feeling which had moistened them for years, shone with a
43:50
Speaker 1: faint luster of courage. No, no, none of that, said he,
43:54
Speaker 1: as I was taking out my port money. You've done
43:58
Speaker 1: me a mighty sight more good than I've done you,
44:00
Speaker 1: let alone paying me to boot. Don't forget to turn
44:02
Speaker 1: the left after crossing Jackson's Run. Good bye, stranger, take good,
44:07
Speaker 1: cure yourself. And with a strong, clinging, lingering grasp of
44:11
Speaker 1: the hand in which the poor fellow expressed the gratitude
44:14
Speaker 1: which he was too shy and awkward to put into words,
44:17
Speaker 1: we parted. He turned his horse's head and slowly plodded
44:21
Speaker 1: back through the mud towards the lonely shanty. On my
44:24
Speaker 1: way to Bloomington, I went over and over the man's
44:26
Speaker 1: story and memory. The facts were tolerably clear and coherent.
44:30
Speaker 1: His narrative was simple and credible enough after my own
44:33
Speaker 1: personal experience of the mysterious noises and the secret, whatever
44:38
Speaker 1: it was, must be sought for in Rachel Emmons. She
44:41
Speaker 1: was still living in Toledo, Ohio, he said, and earned
44:45
Speaker 1: her living as a seamstress. It would therefore not be
44:48
Speaker 1: difficult to find her, I confess after his own unsatisfactory interview.
44:52
Speaker 1: I had little hope of penetrating her singular reserve, but
44:55
Speaker 1: I felt the strongest desire to see her at least
44:58
Speaker 1: and thus test the completory reality of a story which
45:01
Speaker 1: surpassed the wildest fiction. After visiting tera Haut, the next
45:06
Speaker 1: point to which Busins called me on the homeward route
45:08
Speaker 1: was Cleveland, and by giving an additional day to the journey,
45:12
Speaker 1: I could easily take Toledo on my way. Between memory
45:15
Speaker 1: and expectation, the time passed rapidly, and a week later
45:18
Speaker 1: I registered my name at the Island House, Toledo. After
45:22
Speaker 1: wandering about for an hour or two, the next morning,
45:24
Speaker 1: I finally discovered the residence of Rachel Emmons. It was
45:28
Speaker 1: a small story and a half framed building on the
45:30
Speaker 1: western edge of the town, with a locust tree in front,
45:33
Speaker 1: two lilacs inside the paling, and a wildness of cabbage
45:36
Speaker 1: stalks and currant bushes in the rear. After much cogitation,
45:40
Speaker 1: I had not been able to decide upon any plan
45:42
Speaker 1: of action, and the interval between my knock and the
45:45
Speaker 1: opening of the door was one of considerable embarrassment to me.
45:49
Speaker 1: A small, plumpish woman of forty with peaked nose, black eyes,
45:52
Speaker 1: and but two upper teeth confronted me. She certainly was
45:56
Speaker 1: not the one I sought. As your name, Rachel Emmons,
46:01
Speaker 1: I asked, nevertheless.
46:03
Speaker 2: No, I'm not her.
46:04
Speaker 1: This is her house, though, Will you tell her a
46:07
Speaker 1: gentleman wants to see her? Said I, putting my foot
46:10
Speaker 1: inside the door as I spoke. The room I saw
46:13
Speaker 1: was plainly but neatly furnished. A rag carpet covered the floor.
46:18
Speaker 1: Green rush bottomed chairs, a settee with chintz cover, and
46:21
Speaker 1: a straight backed rocking chair were distributed around the walls.
46:24
Speaker 1: And for ornament there was an alphabetical sampler and a
46:27
Speaker 1: frame over the low wooden mantelpiece. The woman, however, still
46:31
Speaker 1: held the door knob in her hands, saying, Miss Emmons
46:34
Speaker 1: is busy. She can't well leave her work. Did you
46:36
Speaker 1: want some sew and done? No, said I I wish
46:40
Speaker 1: to speak with her. It's on private and particular business. Well,
46:45
Speaker 1: she answered, with some hesitation, I'll tell her take a cheer.
46:51
Speaker 1: She disappeared through a door into a back room, and
46:53
Speaker 1: I sat down. In another minute, the door noiselessly reopened,
46:57
Speaker 1: and Rachel Emmons came softly into the room. I believe
47:00
Speaker 1: I should have known her anywhere, though from eber Nicholson's
47:04
Speaker 1: narrative she could not have been much over thirty. She
47:06
Speaker 1: appeared to be at least forty five. Her hair was
47:09
Speaker 1: streaked with gray, her face thin and of an unnatural
47:12
Speaker 1: waxy pallor, her lips of a whitish blue color and
47:15
Speaker 1: tightly pressed together, and her eyes seemingly sunken far back
47:19
Speaker 1: in their orbits, burned with a strange ghastly I had
47:22
Speaker 1: almost said phosphorescent light. I remember thinking they must shine
47:27
Speaker 1: like torchwood in the dark. I've come in contact with
47:29
Speaker 1: too many persons, passed through too wide a range of
47:33
Speaker 1: experience to lose my self possession easily. But I could
47:36
Speaker 1: not meet the cold, steady gaze of those eyes without
47:40
Speaker 1: a strong internal trepidation. It would have been the same
47:43
Speaker 1: if I had known nothing about her. She was probably
47:47
Speaker 1: surprised at seeing a stranger, but I could discern no
47:49
Speaker 1: trace of it in her face. She advanced but a
47:51
Speaker 1: few steps into the room, and then stopped, waiting for
47:54
Speaker 1: me to speak. You are Rachel Emmons, I asked, since
47:58
Speaker 1: a commencement of some so or it must be made. Yes,
48:02
Speaker 1: I come from eber Nicholson, said I, fixing my eyes
48:06
Speaker 1: on her face. Not a muscle moved, not a nerve quivered.
48:10
Speaker 1: But I fancied that a faint purple flush played for
48:12
Speaker 1: an instant under the white mask. If I were correct,
48:16
Speaker 1: it was but momentary. She lifted her left hand, slowly,
48:20
Speaker 1: pressed it on her heart, and then let it fall.
48:22
Speaker 1: The motion was so calm that I should not have
48:25
Speaker 1: noticed it if I had not been watching her so steadily. Well,
48:30
Speaker 1: she said, after a pause, Rachel Emmons said, I, and
48:34
Speaker 1: more than one cause conspired to make my voice earnest
48:36
Speaker 1: and authoritative. I know all. I come to you not
48:41
Speaker 1: to meddle with the sorrow. Let me say the sin
48:44
Speaker 1: which has blighted your life. Not because eber Nicholson sent me,
48:49
Speaker 1: not to defend him or to accuse you, but from
48:52
Speaker 1: that solemn sense of duty which makes every man responsible
48:56
Speaker 1: to God for what he does or leaves undone an
48:59
Speaker 1: equal pity for him and for you, forces me to speak.
49:02
Speaker 1: He cannot plead his case. You cannot understand his misery.
49:05
Speaker 1: I will not ask by what wonderful power you continued
49:08
Speaker 1: to torment his life. I will not even doubt that
49:10
Speaker 1: you pity while you afflict him. But I ask you
49:13
Speaker 1: to reflect whether the selfishness of your sorrow may not
49:16
Speaker 1: have hardened your heart and blinded you to that consolation
49:19
Speaker 1: which God offers to those who humbly seek it. You
49:22
Speaker 1: say that you are married to eber Nicholson in his sight, Think,
49:27
Speaker 1: Rachel Emmons, think of that moment when you will stand
49:29
Speaker 1: before his awful bar and the poor, broken, suffering soul
49:33
Speaker 1: whom your forgiveness might still make yours in the holy
49:36
Speaker 1: marriage of Heaven, shrinks from you with fear and pain,
49:39
Speaker 1: as in the remembered persecutions of earth. The words came
49:44
Speaker 1: hot from my very heart, and the ice crust of
49:46
Speaker 1: years under which hers lay benumbed, gave way before them.
49:49
Speaker 1: She trembled slightly, and at the same sad, hopeless moan
49:52
Speaker 1: which I had heard at midnight, and the Illinois shanty
49:55
Speaker 1: came from her lips. She sank into a chair, letting
49:58
Speaker 1: her hands fall heavily at her side. There was no
50:01
Speaker 1: movement of her features. Yet I saw that her waxy
50:05
Speaker 1: cheeks were moist, as with the slow ooze of tears
50:08
Speaker 1: so long unshed that they had forgotten their natural flow.
50:12
Speaker 1: I do pity him, she murmured at last, and I
50:16
Speaker 1: believe I forgive him. But oh, I've become an instrument
50:20
Speaker 1: of wrath for the punishment of both. If any feeling
50:24
Speaker 1: of reproof still lingered in my mind, her appearance disarmed
50:27
Speaker 1: me at once. I felt nothing but pity for her forlorn,
50:31
Speaker 1: helpless state. It was the apathy of despair, rather than
50:34
Speaker 1: the coldness of cherished malice, which had so frozen her life.
50:38
Speaker 1: Still the mystery of those knightly persecutions, Rachel Emmons, I said,
50:43
Speaker 1: you certainly know that you still continue to destroy the
50:45
Speaker 1: peace of eber Nicholson and his family. Do you mean
50:48
Speaker 1: to say that you cannot cease to do so? If
50:50
Speaker 1: you would, it is too late, said she, shaking her
50:54
Speaker 1: head slowly as she clasped both hands hard against her breast.
50:58
Speaker 1: Do you think I would suffer night after night if
51:01
Speaker 1: I could help it? Haven't? I stayed awake for days
51:04
Speaker 1: till my strength gave way, rather than fall asleep for
51:07
Speaker 1: his sake, wouldn't I give my life to be free,
51:11
Speaker 1: and would have taken it long ago with my own hands,
51:13
Speaker 1: but for the sin. She spoke in a low voice,
51:16
Speaker 1: but with a wild earnestness, which startled me. She then
51:20
Speaker 1: was equally a victim, but said I this thing had
51:25
Speaker 1: a beginning. Why did you visit him in the first place,
51:28
Speaker 1: when perhaps you might have prevented it. I am afraid
51:31
Speaker 1: that was my sin, she replied. And this is the punishment.
51:36
Speaker 1: When father and mother died and I was layin, sick
51:38
Speaker 1: and weak, with nothing to do but think o him
51:41
Speaker 1: an me, all alone in the world, and not knowing
51:43
Speaker 1: how to live without him because I had nobody left.
51:46
Speaker 1: That's when it begun. When the deadly kind of sleeps
51:49
Speaker 1: came on. They used to think I was dead or
51:51
Speaker 1: fainting at first, and I could go where my heart
51:54
Speaker 1: drawed me and look at him away off where he lived.
51:58
Speaker 1: Twas consoling, and I didn't try to it. I used
52:01
Speaker 1: to long for the knots so I could go and
52:02
Speaker 1: be near him for an hour or two. I don't
52:05
Speaker 1: know how I went. It seemed to come of itself.
52:08
Speaker 1: After a while. I felt I was troubling him and
52:10
Speaker 1: doing no good to myself. But the sleeps came just
52:12
Speaker 1: the same as ever, and then I couldn't help myself.
52:15
Speaker 1: They're only a sorrow to me now, But I suppose
52:17
Speaker 1: I shall have him till I've laid in my grave.
52:21
Speaker 1: This was all the explanation she could give. It was
52:23
Speaker 1: evidently one of those mysterious cases of spiritual disease which
52:27
Speaker 1: completely baffle our reason. Although compelled to accept her statement,
52:32
Speaker 1: I felt incapable of suggesting any remedy. I could only
52:36
Speaker 1: hope that the abnormal condition into which she had fallen
52:38
Speaker 1: might speedily wear out her vital energies, already seriously shattered.
52:43
Speaker 1: She informed me further that each attack was succeeded by
52:47
Speaker 1: great exhaustion, and that she felt herself growing feebler from
52:51
Speaker 1: year to year. The immediate result, I suspected was a
52:55
Speaker 1: disease of the heart, which might give her the blessing
52:58
Speaker 1: of death sooner than she hoped. Before taking leave of her,
53:01
Speaker 1: I succeeded in procuring from her a promise that she
53:04
Speaker 1: would write to eber Nicholson, giving him that free forgiveness,
53:08
Speaker 1: which would at least ease his conscience and make his
53:10
Speaker 1: burden somewhat lighter. To bear. Then, feeling that it was
53:14
Speaker 1: not in my power to do more, I rose to depart,
53:17
Speaker 1: taking her hand, which lay so cold and passive in mine,
53:21
Speaker 1: so much like a dead hand, that it required a
53:23
Speaker 1: strong effort in me to repress a nervous shudder. I said, farewell,
53:28
Speaker 1: Rachel Emmons, and remember that they who seek peace in
53:31
Speaker 1: the right spirit will always find it. At last, it
53:35
Speaker 1: won't be many years before I find it, she replied calmly,
53:39
Speaker 1: and the weird, supernatural light of her eyes shone upon
53:42
Speaker 1: me for the last time. I reached New York in
53:45
Speaker 1: due time, and did not fail sitting around the broiled
53:48
Speaker 1: oysters and celery with my partners to repeat the story
53:50
Speaker 1: of the Haunted Shanty. I knew beforehand how they would
53:54
Speaker 1: receive it, but the circumstances had taken such hold of
53:56
Speaker 1: my mind so burned me like a boy's money to
54:00
Speaker 1: keep buttoned up in the pocket, that I could no
54:02
Speaker 1: more help telling the tale than the man I remembered
54:04
Speaker 1: reading about a great while ago in a poem called
54:07
Speaker 1: the ancient Mariner Beeson, who I suspect don't believe much
54:10
Speaker 1: of anything, is always apt to carry his raillery too far,
54:14
Speaker 1: And thenceforth whenever the drum of a target company marching
54:17
Speaker 1: down Broadway past the head of our street, he would
54:19
Speaker 1: whisper to me, there comes Rachel Emmons, until I finally
54:23
Speaker 1: became angry and insisted that the subject should never again
54:25
Speaker 1: be mentioned. But I none the less recalled it to
54:29
Speaker 1: my mind from time to time with a singular interest.
54:32
Speaker 1: It was the one supernatural, or at least inexplicable experience
54:37
Speaker 1: of my life, and I continued to feel a profound
54:40
Speaker 1: curiosity with regard to the two principal characters. My slight
54:44
Speaker 1: endeavor to assist them by such counsel, as had suggested
54:47
Speaker 1: itself to me, was actuated by the purest human sympathy,
54:50
Speaker 1: and upon further reflection, I could discover no other means
54:53
Speaker 1: of help. A spiritual disease could be cured only by
54:56
Speaker 1: spiritual medicine, unless, indeed, the secret of Rachel Emmons's mysterious
55:01
Speaker 1: condition lay in some permanent dislocation of the relation between
55:05
Speaker 1: soul and body, which could terminate only with their final separation.
55:10
Speaker 1: With the extension of our business and the increasing calls
55:13
Speaker 1: upon my time during my Western journeys, it was three
55:16
Speaker 1: years before I again found myself in Toledo with sufficient
55:19
Speaker 1: leisure to repeat my visit. I had some difficulty in
55:23
Speaker 1: finding the little frame house, for although it was unaltered
55:27
Speaker 1: in every respect, a number of stately brick villas had
55:30
Speaker 1: sprung up around it and quite disguised the locality. The
55:33
Speaker 1: door was opened by the same little black eyed woman,
55:35
Speaker 1: with the addition of four artificial teeth, which were altogether
55:38
Speaker 1: too large and loose. They were attached by plated hooks
55:41
Speaker 1: to her eye teeth and moved up and down when
55:43
Speaker 1: she spoke. Is Rachel Emmons at home? I asked? The
55:48
Speaker 1: woman stared at me in evident surprise. She's dead, said
55:52
Speaker 1: she at last, then added, let's see. Ain't you a
55:56
Speaker 1: gentleman it caught here some three or four years ago? Yes,
56:00
Speaker 1: said I, entering the room. I should like to hear
56:02
Speaker 1: about her death. Well, twas rather queer. She was failing
56:07
Speaker 1: when you was here. After that she got softer and
56:09
Speaker 1: weaker like, and didn't have her death like wearin sleep
56:12
Speaker 1: so often. But she went just as fast. For all that,
56:15
Speaker 1: the doctor said, twas heart disease, and the nerves was
56:18
Speaker 1: gone too, so he only give her morphy and sometimes peals.
56:22
Speaker 1: But he knows she'd no chance from the first twas
56:25
Speaker 1: a year ago last May, when she died. She'd been
56:27
Speaker 1: confined to her bed bout a week, but i'd a
56:29
Speaker 1: thought of her going so soon I was settin up
56:32
Speaker 1: with her an twas little past midnight. Maybe she'd been
56:35
Speaker 1: layin' like dead awhile an I was thinkin I could
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Speaker 1: snatch ant before she woke all twicts. She rise right
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Speaker 1: up in bed with her eyes wide open and her
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Speaker 1: face looking real happy, and called out loud and strong, farewell,
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Speaker 1: eber Nicholson. Farewell, I've come for the last time. There's
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Speaker 1: peace for me in heaven, an peace for you on earth. Farewell, farewell.
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Speaker 1: Then she dropped back on the pillar stone, dead un
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Speaker 1: she expected, it seems, and got the doctor to rider wheel.
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Speaker 1: She left me this house in Lot. I'm her second
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Speaker 1: cousin on her mother's side. But all our money in
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Speaker 1: the savings bank six hundred and seventy nine dollars and
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Speaker 1: a half to eber Nicholson. The doctor read out to
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Speaker 1: Illinois and found he'd gone to Kansas a year before,
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Speaker 1: So the money's in the bank yet, but I suppose
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Speaker 1: he'll get it some time or other. As I returned
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Speaker 1: to the hotel. Conscious of a melancholy pleasure at the
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Speaker 1: news of her death, I could not help wondering did
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Speaker 1: he hear that last farewell far away in his Kansas cabin?
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Speaker 1: Did he hear it and fall asleep with thanksgiving in
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Speaker 1: his heart? And arise in the morning to a liberated life.
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Speaker 1: I have never visited Kansas, nor have I ever heard
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Speaker 1: from him since, but I know that the living ghost
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Speaker 1: which haunted him is laid forever. Reader, you will not
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Speaker 1: believe my story, but it is true. End of the
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Speaker 1: Haunted Shanty by Bear Taylor