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diff --git a/old/cs04w10.txt b/old/cs04w10.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..76b03ec --- /dev/null +++ b/old/cs04w10.txt @@ -0,0 +1,4931 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook Myths And Legends Of Our Own Land, v4 +#4 in our series by Charles M. Skinner + +Copyright laws are changing all over the world. Be sure to check the +copyright laws for your country before downloading or redistributing +this or any other Project Gutenberg eBook. + +This header should be the first thing seen when viewing this Project +Gutenberg file. Please do not remove it. Do not change or edit the +header without written permission. + +Please read the "legal small print," and other information about the +eBook and Project Gutenberg at the bottom of this file. Included is +important information about your specific rights and restrictions in +how the file may be used. You can also find out about how to make a +donation to Project Gutenberg, and how to get involved. + + +**Welcome To The World of Free Plain Vanilla Electronic Texts** + +**EBooks Readable By Both Humans and By Computers, Since 1971** + +*****These EBooks Were Prepared By Thousands of Volunteers***** + + +Title: Myths And Legends Of Our Own Land (Tales Of Puritan Land) + +Author: Charles M. Skinner + +Release Date: October, 2004 [EBook #6609] +[Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule] +[This file was first posted on December 31, 2003] + +Edition: 10 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + + + + + +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MYTHS-LEGENDS, BY SKINNER, V4 *** + + + +This eBook was produced by David Widger <widger@cecomet.net> + + + + + + MYTHS AND LEGENDS + OF + OUR OWN LAND + + By + Charles M. Skinner + + Vol. 4. + + + TALES OF PURITAN LAND + + + + +CONTENTS: + +Evangeline +The Snoring of Swunksus +The Lewiston Hermit +The Dead Ship of Harpswell +The Schoolmaster had not reached Orrington +Jack Welch's Death Light +Mogg Megone +The Lady Ursula +Father Moody's Black Veil +The Home of Thunder +The Partridge Witch +The Marriage of Mount Katahdin +The Moose of Mount Kineo +The Owl Tree +A Chestnut Log +The Watcher on White Island +Chocorua +Passaconaway's Ride to Heaven +The Ball Game by the Saco +The White Mountains +The Vision on Mount Adams +The Great Carbuncle +Skinner's Cave +Yet they call it Lover's Leap +Salem and other Witchcraft +The Gloucester Leaguers +Satan and his Burial-Place +Peter Rugg, the Missing Man +The Loss of Weetamoo +The Fatal Forget-me-not +The Old Mill at Somerville +Edward Randolph's Portrait +Lady Eleanore's Mantle +Howe's Masquerade +Old Esther Dudley +The Loss of Jacob Hurd +The Hobomak +Berkshire Tories +The Revenge of Josiah Breeze +The May-Pole of Merrymount +The Devil and Tom Walker +The Gray Champion +The Forest Smithy +Wahconah Falls +Knocking at the Tomb +The White Deer of Onota +Wizard's Glen +Balanced Rock +Shonkeek-Moonkeek +The Salem Alchemist +Eliza Wharton +Sale of the Southwicks +The Courtship of Myles Standish +Mother Crewe +Aunt Rachel's Curse +Nix's Mate +The Wild Man of Cape Cod +Newbury's Old Elm +Samuel Sewall's Prophecy +The Shrieking Woman +Agnes Surriage +Skipper Ireson's Ride +Heartbreak Hill +Harry Main: The Treasure and the Cats +The Wessaguscus Hanging +The Unknown Champion +Goody Cole +General Moulton and the Devil +The Skeleton in Armor +Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket +Love and Treason +The Headless Skeleton of Swamptown +The Crow and Cat of Hopkins Hill +The Old Stone Mill +Origin of a Name +Micah Rood Apples +A Dinner and its Consequences +The New Haven Storm Ship +The Windham Frogs +The Lamb of Sacrifice +Moodus Noises +Haddam Enchantments +Block Island and the Palatine +The Buccaneer +Robert Lockwood's Fate +Love and Rum + + + + + TALES OF PURITAN LAND + + EVANGALINE + +The seizure by England of the country that soon afterward was +rechristened Nova Scotia was one of the cruellest events in history. +The land was occupied by a good and happy people who had much faith and +few laws, plenty to eat and drink, no tax collectors nor magistrates, in +brief, a people who were entitled to call themselves Acadians, for they +made their land an Arcady. Upon them swooped the British ships, took +them unarmed and unoffending, crowded them aboard their transports,-- +often separating husband and wife, parents and children,--scattered them +far and wide, beyond hope of return, and set up the cross of St. George +on the ruins of prosperity and peace. On the shore of the Basin of +Minas can still be traced the foundations of many homes that were +perforce deserted at that time, and among them are the ruins of Grand +Pre. + +Here lived Evangeline Bellefontaine and Gabriel Lajeunesse, who were +betrothed with the usual rejoicings just before the coming of the +English. They had expected, when their people were arrested, to be sent +away together; but most of the men were kept under guard, and Gabriel +was at sea, bound neither he nor she knew whither, when Evangeline found +herself in her father's house alone, for grief and excitement had been +more than her aged parent could bear, and he was buried at the shore +just before the women of the place were crowded on board of a transport. +As the ship set off her sorrowing passengers looked behind them to see +their homes going up in flame and smoke, and Acadia knew them no more. +The English had planned well to keep these people from coming together +for conspiracy or revenge: they scattered them over all America, from +Newfoundland to the southern savannas. + +Evangeline was not taken far away, only to New England; but without +Gabriel all lands were drear, and she set off in the search for him, +working here and there, sometimes looking timidly at the headstones on +new graves, then travelling on. Once she heard that he was a /coureur +des bois/ on the prairies, again that he was a voyageur in the Louisiana +lowlands; but those of his people who kept near her inclined to jest at +her faith and urged her to marry Leblanc, the notary's son, who truly +loved her. To these she only replied, "I cannot." + +Down the Ohio and Mississippi she went--on a raft--with a little band of +those who were seeking the French settlements, where the language, +religion, and simplicity of life recalled Acadia. They found it on the +banks of the Teche, and they reached the house of the herdsman Gabriel +on the day that he had departed for the north to seek Evangeline. She +and the good priest who had been her stay in a year of sorrow turned +back in pursuit, and for weary months, over prairie and through forest, +skirting mountain and morass, going freely among savages, they followed +vain clues, and at last arrived in Philadelphia. Broken in spirit then, +but not less sweet of nature for the suffering that she had known, she +who had been named for the angels became a minister of mercy, and in the +black robe of a nun went about with comforts to the sick and poor. A +pestilence was sweeping through the city, and those who had no friends +nor attendants were taken to the almshouse, whither, as her way was, +Evangeline went on a soft Sabbath morning to calm the fevered and +brighten the hearts of the dying. + +Some of the patients of the day before had gone and new were in their +places. Suddenly she turned white and sank on her knees at a bedside, +with a cry of "Gabriel, my beloved!" breathed into the ears of a +prematurely aged man who lay gasping in death before her. He came out +of his stupor, slowly, and tried to speak her name. She drew his head +to her bosom, kissed him, and for one moment they were happy. Then the +light went out of his eyes and the warmth from his heart. She pressed +his eyelids down and bowed her head, for her way was plainer now, and +she thanked God that it was so. + + + + + THE SNORING OF SWUNKSUS + +The original proprietor of Deer Isle, off the coast of Maine--at least, +the one who was in possession one hundred and thirty years ago--had the +liquid name of Swunksus. His name was not the only liquid thing in the +neighborhood, however, for, wherever Swunksus was, fire-water was not +far. Shortly before the Revolution a renegade from Boston, one Conary, +moved up to the island and helped himself to as much of it as he chose, +but the longer he lived there the more he wanted. Swunksus was willing +enough to divide his domain with the white intruder, but Conary was not +satisfied with half. He did not need it all; he just wanted it. +Moreover, he grew quarrelsome and was continually nagging poor Swunksus, +until at last he forced the Indian to accept a challenge, not to +immediate combat, but to fight to the death should they meet thereafter. + +The red man retired to his half of the island and hid among the bushes +near his home to await the white man, but in this little fastness he +discovered a jug of whiskey that either fate or Conary had placed there. +Before an hour was over he was "as full and mellow as a harvest moon," +and it was then that his enemy appeared. There was no trouble in +finding Swunksus, for he was snoring like a fog horn, and walking boldly +up to him, Conary blew his head off with a load of slugs. Then he +took possession of the place and lived happily ever after. Swunksus +takes his deposition easily, for, although he has more than once paraded +along the beaches, his ghost spends most of the time in slumber, and +terrific snores have been heard proceeding from the woods in daylight. + + + + + THE LEWISTON HERMIT + +On an island above the falls of the Androscoggin, at Lewiston, Maine, +lived a white recluse at the beginning of the eighteenth century. The +natives, having had good reason to mistrust all palefaces, could think +no good of the man who lived thus among but not with them. Often they +gathered at the bank and looked across at his solitary candle twinkling +among the leaves, and wondered what manner of evil he could be planning +against them. Wherever there are many conspirators one will be a +gabbler or a traitor; so, when the natives had resolved on his murder, +he, somehow, learned of their intent and set himself to thwart it. So +great was their fear of this lonely man, and of the malignant powers he +might conjure to his aid, that nearly fifty Indians joined the +expedition, to give each other courage. + +Their plan was to go a little distance up the river and come down with +the current, thus avoiding the dip of paddles that he might hear in a +direct crossing. When it was quite dark they set off, and keeping +headway on their canoes aimed them toward the light that glimmered above +the water. But the cunning hermit had no fire in his cabin that night. +It was burning on a point below his shelter, and from his hiding-place +among the rocks he saw their fleet, as dim and silent as shadows, go by +him on the way to the misguiding beacon. + +Presently a cry arose. The savages had passed the point of safe +sailing; their boats had become unmanageable. Forgetting their errand, +their only hope now was to save themselves, but in vain they tried to +reach the shore: the current was whirling them to their doom. Cries and +death-songs mingled with the deepening roar of the waters, the light +barks reached the cataract and leaped into the air. Then the night was +still again, save for the booming of the flood. Not one of the Indians +who had set out on this errand of death survived the hermit's stratagem. + + + + + THE DEAD SHIP OF HARPSWELL + +At times the fisher-folk of Maine are startled to see the form of a +ship, with gaunt timbers showing through the planks, like lean limbs +through rents in a pauper's garb, float shoreward in the sunset. She is +a ship of ancient build, with tall masts and sails of majestic spread, +all torn; but what is her name, her port, her flag, what harbor she is +trying to make, no man can tell, for on her deck no sailor has ever been +seen to run up colors or heard to answer a hail. Be it in calm or +storm, in-come or ebb of tide, the ship holds her way until she almost +touches shore. + +There is no creak of spars or whine of cordage, no spray at the bow, no +ripple at the stern--no voice, and no figure to utter one. As she nears +the rocks she pauses, then, as if impelled by a contrary current, floats +rudder foremost off to sea, and vanishes in twilight. Harpswell is her +favorite cruising-ground, and her appearance there sets many heads to +shaking, for while it is not inevitable that ill luck follows her +visits, it has been seen that burial-boats have sometimes had occasion +to cross the harbor soon after them, and that they were obliged by wind +or tide or current to follow her course on leaving the wharf. + + + + + THE SCHOOLMASTER HAD NOT REACHED ORRINGTON. + +The quiet town of Orrington, in Maine, was founded by Jesse Atwood, of +Wellfleet, Cape Cod, in 1778, and has become known, since then, as a +place where skilful farmers and brave sailors could always be found. It +also kept Maine supplied for years with oldest inhabitants. It is said +that the name was an accident of illiteracy, and that it is the only +place in the world that owes its title to bad spelling. The settlers +who followed Atwood there were numerous enough to form a township after +ten years, and the name they decided on for their commonwealth was +Orangetown, so called for a village in Maryland where some of the people +had associations, but the clerk of the town meeting was not a college +graduate and his spelling of Orange was Orring, and of town, ton. His +draft of the resolutions went before the legislature, and the people +directly afterward found themselves living in Orrington. + + + + + JACK WELCH'S DEATH LIGHT + +Pond Cove, Maine, is haunted by a light that on a certain evening, every +summer, rises a mile out at sea, drifts to a spot on shore, then whirls +with a buzz and a glare to an old house, where it vanishes. Its first +appearance was simultaneous with the departure of Jack Welch, a +fisherman. He was seen one evening at work on his boat, but in the +morning he was gone, nor has he since shown himself in the flesh. + +On the tenth anniversary of this event three fishermen were hurrying up +the bay, hoping to reach home before dark, for they dreaded that uncanny +light, but a fog came in and it was late before they reached the wharf. +As they were tying their boat a channel seemed to open through the mist, +and along that path from the deep came a ball of pallid flame with the +rush of a meteor. There was one of the men who cowered at the bottom of +the boat with ashen face and shaking limbs, and did not watch the light, +even though it shot above his head, played through the rigging, and +after a wide sweep went shoreward and settled on his house. Next day +one of his comrades called for him, but Tom Wright was gone, gone, his +wife said, before the day broke. Like Jack Welch's disappearance, this +departure was unexplained, and in time he was given up for dead. + +Twenty years had passed, when Wright's presumptive widow was startled +by the receipt of a letter in a weak, trembling hand, signed with her +husband's name. It was written on his death-bed, in a distant place, +and held a confession. Before their marriage, Jack Welch had been a +suitor for her hand, and had been the favored of the two. To remove his +rival and prosper in his place, Wright stole upon the other at his work, +killed him, took his body to sea, and threw it overboard. Since that +time the dead man had pursued him, and he was glad that the end of his +days was come. But, though Tom Wright is no more, his victim's light +comes yearly from the sea, above the spot where his body sank, floats to +the scene of the murder on the shore, then flits to the house where the +assassin lived and for years simulated the content that comes of wedded +life. + + + + MOGG MEGONE + +Hapless daughter of a renegade is Ruth Bonython. Her father is as +unfair to his friends as to his enemies, but to neither of them so +merciless as to Ruth. Although he knows that she loves Master Scammon-- +in spite of his desertion and would rather die than wed another, he has +promised her to Mogg Megone, the chief who rules the Indians at the Saco +mouth. He, blundering savage, fancies that he sees to the bottom of her +grief, and one day, while urging his suit, he opens his blanket and +shows the scalp of Scammon, to prove that he has avenged her. She looks +in horror, but when he flings the bloody trophy at her feet she baptizes +it with a forgiving tear. What villany may this lead to? Ah, none for +him, for Bonython now steps in and plies him with flattery and drink, +gaining from the chief, at last, his signature--the bow totem--to a +transfer of the land for which he is willing to sell his daughter. +Ruth, maddened at her father's meanness and the Indian's brutality, +rushes on the imbruted savage, grasps from his belt the knife that has +slain her lover, cleaves his heart in twain, and flies into the wood, +leaving Bonython stupid with amazement. + +Father Rasles, in his chapel at Norridgewock, is affecting his Indian +converts against the Puritans, who settled to the southward of him fifty +years before. To him comes a woman with torn garments and frightened +face. Her dead mother stood before her last night, she says, and looked +at her reprovingly, for she had killed Mogg Megone. The priest starts +back in wrath, for Mogg was a hopeful agent of the faith, and bids her +go, for she can ask no pardon. Brooding within his chapel, then, he is +startled by the sound of shot and hum of arrows. Harmon and Moulton are +advancing with their men and crying, "Down with the beast of Rome! +Death to the Babylonish dog!" Ruth, knowing not what this new +misfortune may mean, runs from the church and disappears. + +Some days later, old Baron Castine, going to Norridgewock to bury and +revenge the dead, finds a woman seated on the earth and gazing over a +field strewn with ashes and with human bones. He touches her. She is +cold. There has been no life for days. It is Ruth. + + + + + THE LADY URSULA + +In 1690 a stately house stood in Kittery, Maine, a strongly guarded place +with moat and drawbridge (which was raised at night) and a moated grange +adjacent where were cattle, sheep, and horses. Here, in lonely dignity, +lived Lady Ursula, daughter of the lord of Grondale Abbey, across the +water, whose distant grandeurs were in some sort reflected in this manor +of the wilderness. Silver, mahogany, paintings, tapestries, waxed +floors, and carven chests of linen represented wealth; prayers were said +by a chaplain every morning and evening in the chapel, and, though the +main hall would accommodate five hundred people, the lady usually sat at +meat there with her thirty servants, her part of the table being raised +two feet above theirs. + +It was her happiness to believe that Captain Fowler, now absent in +conflict with the French, would return and wed her according to his +promise, but one day came a tattered messenger with bitter news of the +captain's death. She made no talk of her grief, and, while her face was +pale and step no longer light, she continued in the work that custom +exacted from women of that time: help for the sick, alms for the poor, +teaching for the ignorant, religion for the savage. Great was her joy, +then, when a ship came from England bringing a letter from Captain +Fowler himself, refuting the rumor of defeat and telling of his coming. +Now the hall took on new life, reflecting the pleasure of its mistress; +color came back to her cheek and sparkle to her eye, and she could only +control her impatience by more active work and more aggressive +charities. The day was near at hand for the arrival of her lover, when +Ursula and her servants were set upon by Indians, while away from the +protection of the manor, and slain. They were buried where they fell, +and Captain Fowler found none to whom his love or sorrow could be told. + + + + + FATHER MOODY'S BLACK VEIL + +In 1770 the Reverend Joseph Moody died at York, Maine, where he had long +held the pastorate of a church, and where in his later years his face +was never seen by friend or relative. At home, when any one was by, on +the street, and in the pulpit his visage was concealed by a double fold +of crape that was knotted above his forehead and fell to his chin, the +lower edge of it being shaken by his breath. When first he presented +himself to his congregation with features masked in black, great was the +wonder and long the talk about it. Was he demented? His sermons were +too logical for that. Had he been crossed in love? He could smile, +though the smile was sad. Had he been scarred by accident or illness? +If so, no physician knew of it. + +After a time it was given out that his eyes were weakened by reading and +writing at night, and the wonder ceased, though the veiled parson was +less in demand for weddings, christenings, and social gatherings, and +more besought for funerals than he had been. If asked to take off his +crape he only replied, "We all wear veils of one kind or another, and +the heaviest and darkest are those that hang about our hearts. This is +but a material veil. Let it stay until the hour strikes when all faces +shall be seen and all souls reveal their secrets." + +Little by little the clergyman felt himself enforced to withdraw from +the public gaze. There were rough people who were impertinent and timid +people who turned out of their road to avoid him, so that he found his +out-door walks and meditations almost confined to the night, unless he +chose the grave-yard for its seclusion or strolled on the beach and +listened to the wallowing and grunting of the Black Boars--the rocks off +shore that had laughed on the night when the York witch went up the +chimney in a gale. But his life was long and kind and useful, and when +at last the veiled head lay on the pillow it was never to rise from +consciously, a fellow-clergyman came to soothe his dying moments and +commend his soul to mercy. + +To him, one evening, Father Moody said, "Brother, my hour is come and +the veil of eternal darkness is falling over my eyes. Men have asked me +why I wear this piece of crape about my face, as if it were not for them +a reminder and a symbol, and I have borne the reason so long within me +that only now have I resolved to tell it. Do you recall the finding of +young Clark beside the river, years ago? He had been shot through the +head. The man who killed him did so by accident, for he was a bosom +friend; yet he could never bring himself to confess the fact, for he +dreaded the blame of his townsmen, the anguish of the dead man's +parents, the hate of his betrothed. It was believed that the killing +was a murder, and that some roving Indian had done it. After years of +conscience-darkened life, in which the face of his dead friend often +arose accusingly before him, the unhappy wretch vowed that he would +never again look his fellows openly in the face: he would pay a penalty +and conceal his shame. Then it was that I put a veil between myself and +the world." + +Joseph Moody passed away and, as he wished, the veil still hid his face +in the coffin, but the clergyman who had raised it for a moment to +compose his features, found there a serenity and a beauty that were +majestic. + + + + + THE HOME OF THUNDER + +Some Indians believe that the Thunder Bird is the agent of storm; that +the flashes of his eyes cause lightning and the flapping of his cloud- +vast wings make thunder. Not so the Passamaquoddies, for they hold that +Katahdin's spirit children are Thunders, and in this way an Indian found +them: He had been seeking game along the Penobscot and for weeks had not +met one of his fellow creatures. On a winter day he came on the print +of a pair of snow-shoes; next morning the tracks appeared in another +part of the forest, and so for many days he found them. + +After a time it occurred to him to see where these tracks went to, and +he followed them until they merged with others in a travelled road, +ending at a precipice on the side of Katahdin (Great Mountain). + +While lost in wonder that so many tracks should lead nowhere, he was +roused by a footfall, and a maiden stepped from the precipice to the +ledge beside him. Though he said nothing, being in awe of her +stateliness and beauty, she replied in kind words to every unspoken +thought and bade him go with her. He approached the rock with fear, +but at a touch from the woman it became as mist, and they entered it +together. + +Presently they were in a great cave in the heart of Katahdin, where sat +the spirit of the mountain, who welcomed them and asked the girl if her +brothers had come. "I hear them coming," she replied. A blinding +flash, a roar of thunder, and there stepped into the cave two men of +giant size and gravely beautiful faces, hardened at the cheeks and brows +to stone. "These," said the girl to the hunter, "are my brothers, the +Thunder and the Lightning. My father sends them forth whenever there is +wrong to redress, that those who love us may not be smitten. When you +hear Thunder, know that they are shooting at our enemies." + +At the end of that day the hunter returned to his home, and behold, he +had been gone seven years. Another legend says that the stone-faced +sons of the mountain adopted him, and that for seven years he was a +roaming Thunder, but at the end of that time while a storm was raging he +was allowed to fall, unharmed, into his own village. + + + + + THE PARTRIDGE WITCH + +Two brothers, having hunted at the head of the Penobscot until their +snow-shoes and moccasins gave out, looked at each other ruefully and +cried, "Would that there was a woman to help us!" The younger brother +went to the lodge that evening earlier than the elder, in order to +prepare the supper, and great was his surprise on entering the wigwam to +find the floor swept, a fire built, a pot boiling, and their clothing +mended. Returning to the wood he watched the place from a covert until +he saw a graceful girl enter the lodge and take up the tasks of +housekeeping. + +When he entered she was confused, but he treated her with respect, and +allowed her to have her own way so far as possible, so that they became +warm friends, sporting together like children when the work of the day +was over. But one evening she said, "Your brother is coming. I fear +him. Farewell." And she slipped into the wood. When the young man +told his elder brother what had happened there--the elder having been +detained for a few days in the pursuit of a deer--he declared that he +would wish the woman to come back, and presently, without any summons, +she returned, bringing a tobogganload of garments and arms. The luck of +the hunters improved, and they remained happily together until spring, +when it was time to return with their furs. + +They set off down the Penobscot in their canoe and rowed merrily along, +but as they neared the home village the girl became uneasy, and +presently "threw out her soul"--became clairvoyant--and said, "Let me +land here. I find that your father would not like me, so do not speak +to him about me." But the elder brother told of her when they reached +home, whereon the father exclaimed, "I had feared this. That woman is a +sister of the goblins. She wishes to destroy men." + +At this the elder brother was afraid, lest she should cast a spell on +him, and rowing up the river for a distance he came upon her as she was +bathing and shot at her. The arrow seemed to strike, for there was a +flutter of feathers and the woman flew away as a partridge. But the +younger did not forget the good she had done and sought her in the wood, +where for many days they played together as of old. + +"I do not blame your father: it is an affair of old, this hate he bears +me," she said. "He will choose a wife for you soon, but do not marry +her, else all will come to an end for you." The man could not wed the +witch, and he might not disobey his father, in spite of this adjuration; +so when the old man said to him, "I have a wife for you, my son," he +answered, "It is well." + +They brought the bride to the village, and for four days the wedding- +dance was held, with a feast that lasted four days more. Then said the +young man, "Now comes the end," and lying down on a bear-skin he sighed +a few times and his spirit ascended to the Ghosts' road--the milky way. +The father shook his head, for he knew that this was the witch's work, +and, liking the place no longer, he went away and the tribe was +scattered. + + + + + THE MARRIAGE OF MOUNT KATAHDIN + +An Indian girl gathering berries on the side of Mount Katahdin looked +up at its peak, rosy in the afternoon light, and sighed, "I wish that +I had a husband. If Katahdin were a man he might marry me." Her +companions laughed at this quaint conceit, and, filled with confusion at +being overheard, she climbed higher up the slope and was lost to sight. +For three years her tribe lost sight of her; then she came back with a +child in her arms a beautiful boy with brows of stone. The boy had +wonderful power: he had only to point at a moose or a duck or a bear, +and it fell dead, so that the tribe never wanted food. For he was the +son of the Indian girl and the spirit of the mountain, who had commanded +her not to reveal the boy's paternity. Through years she held silence +on this point, holding in contempt, like other Indians, the prying +inquiries of gossips and the teasing of young people, and knowing that +Katahdin had designed the child for the founder of a mighty race, with +the sinews of the very mountains in its frame, that should fill and rule +the earth. Yet, one day, in anger at some slight, the mother spoke: +"Fools! Wasps who sting the fingers that pick you from the water! Why +do you torment me about what you might all see? Look at the boy's face +--his brows: in them do you not see Katahdin? Now you have brought the +curse upon yourselves, for you shall hunt your own venison from this +time forth." Leading the child by the hand she turned toward the +mountain and went out from their sight. And since then the Indians who +could not hold their tongues, and who might otherwise have been great, +have dwindled to a little people. + + + + + THE MOOSE OF MOUNT KINEO + +Eastern traditions concerning Hiawatha differ in many respects from +those of the West. In the East he is known as Glooskap, god of the +Passamaquoddies, and his marks are left in many places in the maritime +provinces and Maine. It was he who gave names to things, created men, +filled them with life, and moved their wonder with storms. He lived on +the rocky height of Blomidon, at the entrance to Minas Basin, Nova +Scotia, and the agates to be found along its foot are jewels that he +made for his grandmother's necklace, when he restored her youth. He +threw up a ridge between Fort Cumberland and Parrsboro, Nova Scotia, +that he might cross, dry shod, the lake made by the beavers when they +dammed the strait at Blomidon, but he afterward killed the beavers, +and breaking down their dam he let the lake flow into the sea, and went +southward on a hunting tour. At Mount Desert he killed a moose, whose +bones he flung to the ground at Bar Harbor, where they are still to be +seen, turned to stone, while across the bay he threw the entrails, and +they, too, are visible as rocks, dented with his arrow-points. Mount +Kineo was anciently a cow moose of colossal size that he slew and turned +into a height of land, and the Indians trace the outline of the creature +in the uplift to this day. Little Kineo was a calf moose that he slew +at the same time, and Kettle Mountain is his camp-caldron that he flung +to the ground in the ardor of the chase. + + + + + THE OWL TREE + +One day in October, 1827, Rev. Charles Sharply rode into Alfred, Maine, +and held service in the meeting-house. After the sermon he announced +that he was going to Waterborough to preach, and that on his circuit he +had collected two hundred and seventy dollars to help build a church in +that village. Would not his hearers add to that sum? They would and +did, and that evening the parson rode away with over three hundred +dollars in his saddlebags. He never appeared in Waterborough. Some of +the country people gave tongue to their fear that the possession of the +money had made him forget his sacred calling and that he had fled the +State. + +On the morning after his disappearance, however, Deacon Dickerman +appeared in Alfred riding on a horse that was declared to be the +minister's, until the tavern hostler affirmed that the minister's horse +had a white star on forehead and breast, whereas this horse was all +black. The deacon said that he found the horse grazing in his yard at +daybreak, and that he would give it to whoever could prove it to be his +property. Nobody appeared to demand it, and people soon forgot that it +was not his. He extended his business at about that time and prospered; +he became a rich man for a little place; though, as his wealth +increased, he became morose and averse to company. + +One day a rumor went around that a belated traveller had seen a misty +thing under "the owl tree" at a turn of a road where owls were hooting, +and that it took on a strange likeness to the missing clergyman. +Dickerman paled when he heard this story, but he shook his head and +muttered of the folly of listening to boy nonsense. Ten years had gone +by-during that time the boys had avoided the owl tree after dark--when a +clergyman of the neighborhood was hastily summoned to see Mr. Dickerman, +who was said to be suffering from overwork. He found the deacon in his +house alone, pacing the floor, his dress disordered, his cheek hectic. + +"I have not long to live," said he, "nor would I live longer if I could. +I am haunted day and night, and there is no peace, no rest for me on +earth. They say that Sharply's spirit has appeared at the owl tree. +Well, his body lies there. They accused me of taking his horse. It is +true. A little black dye on his head and breast was all that was needed +to deceive them. Pray for me, for I fear my soul is lost. I killed +Sharply." The clergyman recoiled. "I killed him," the wretched man +went on, "for the money that he had. The devil prospered me with it. +In my will I leave two thousand dollars to his widow and five thousand +dollars to the church he was collecting for. Will there be mercy for me +there? I dare not think it. Go and pray for me." The clergyman +hastened away, but was hardly outside the door when the report of a +pistol brought him back. Dickerman lay dead on the floor. Sharply's +body was exhumed from the shade of the owl tree, and the spot was never +haunted after. + + + + + A CHESTNUT LOG + +There is no doubt that farmer Lovel had read ancient history or he would +not have been so ready in the emergency that befell him one time in the +last century. He had settled among the New Hampshire hills near the +site that is now occupied by the village of Washington and had a real +good time there with bears and Indians. It was when he was splitting +rails on Lovel Mountain--they named it for him afterward--that he found +himself surrounded by six Indians, who told him that he was their +prisoner. He agreed that they had the advantage over him and said that +he would go quietly along if they would allow him to finish the big +chestnut log that he was at work on. As he was a powerful fellow and +was armed with an axe worth any two of their tomahawks, and as he would +be pretty sure to have the life of at least one of them if they tried to +drive him faster than he wanted to go, they consented. He said that he +would be ready all the sooner if they would help him to pull the big log +apart, and they agreed to help him. Driving a wedge into the long split +he asked them to take hold, and when they had done this he knocked out +the wedge with a single blow and the twelve hands were caught tight in +the closing wood. Struggle as the savages might, they could not get +free, and after calmly enjoying the situation for a few minutes he +walked slowly from one to the other and split open the heads of all six. +Then he went to work again splitting up more chestnuts. + + + + + THE WATCHER ON WHITE ISLAND + +The isles of Shoals, a little archipelago of wind and wave-swept rocks +that may be seen on clear days from the New Hampshire coast, have been +the scene of some mishaps and some crimes. On Boone Island, where the +Nottingham galley went down one hundred and fifty years ago, the +survivors turned cannibals to escape starvation, while Haley's Island +is peopled by shipwrecked Spanish ghosts that hail vessels and beg for +passage back to their country. The pirate Teach, or Blackbeard, used to +put in at these islands to hide his treasure, and one of his lieutenants +spent some time on White Island with a beautiful girl whom he had +abducted from her home in Scotland and who, in spite of his rough life, +had learned to love him. It was while walking with her on this rock, +forgetful of his trade and the crimes he had been stained with, that one +of his men ran up to report a sail that was standing toward the islands. +The pirate ship was quickly prepared for action, but before embarking, +mindful of possible flight or captivity, the lieutenant made his +mistress swear that she would guard the buried treasure if it should be +till doomsday. + +The ship he was hurrying to meet came smoothly on until the pirate craft +was well in range, when ports flew open along the stranger's sides, guns +were run out, and a heavy broadside splintered through the planks of the +robber galley. It was a man-of-war, not a merchantman, that had run +Blackbeard down. The war-ship closed and grappled with the corsair, but +while the sailors were standing at the chains ready to leap aboard and +complete the subjugation of the outlaws a mass of flame burst from the +pirate ship, both vessels were hurled in fragments through the air, and +a roar went for miles along the sea. Blackbeard's lieutenant had fired +the magazine rather than submit to capture, and had blown the two ships +into a common ruin. A few of both crews floated to the islands on +planks, sore from burns and bruises, but none survived the cold and +hunger of the winter. The pirate's mistress was among the first to die; +still, true to her promise, she keeps her watch, and at night is dimly +seen on a rocky point gazing toward the east, her tall figure enveloped +in a cloak, her golden hair unbound upon her shoulders, her pale face +still as marble. + + + + + CHOCORUA + +This beautiful alp in the White Mountains commemorates in its name a +prophet of the Pequawket tribe who, prior to undertaking a journey, had +confided his son to a friendly settler, Cornelius Campbell, of Tamworth. +The boy found some poison in the house that had been prepared for foxes, +and, thinking it to be some delicacy, he drank of it and died. When +Chocorua returned he could not be persuaded that his son had fallen +victim to his own ignorance, but ascribed his death to the white man's +treachery, and one day, when Campbell entered his cabin from the fields, +he found there the corpses of his wife and children scalped and mangled. + +He was not a man to lament at such a time: hate was stronger than +sorrow. A fresh trail led from his door. Seizing his rifle he set +forth in pursuit of the murderer. A mark in the dust, a bent grass +blade, a torn leaf-these were guides enough, and following on through +bush and swamp and wood they led him to this mountain, and up the slope +he scrambled breathlessly. At the summit, statue-like, Chocorua stood. +He saw the avenger coming, and knew himself unarmed, but he made no +attempt to escape his doom. Drawing himself erect and stretching forth +his hands he invoked anathema on his enemies in these words: "A curse +upon you, white men! May the Great Spirit curse you when he speaks in +the clouds, and his words are fire! Chocorua had a son and you killed +him while the sky looked bright. Lightning blast your crops! Winds and +fire destroy your dwellings! The Evil One breathe death upon your +cattle! Your graves lie in the war-path of the Indian! Panthers howl +and wolves fatten over your bones! Chocorua goes to the Great Spirit. +His curse stays with the white man." + +The report of Campbell's rifle echoed from the ledges and Chocorua +leaped into the air, plunging to the rocks below. His mangled remains +were afterward found and buried near the Tamworth path. The curse had +its effect, for pestilence and storm devastated the surrounding country +and the smaller settlements were abandoned. Campbell became a morose +hermit, and was found dead in his bed two years afterward. + + + + + PASSACONAWAY'S RIDE TO HEAVEN + +The personality of Passaconaway, the powerful chief and prophet, is +involved in doubt, but there can be no misprision of his wisdom. By +some historians he has been made one with St. Aspenquid, the earliest +of native missionaries among the Indians, who, after his conversion by +French Jesuits, travelled from Maine to the Pacific, preaching to sixty- +six tribes, healing the sick and working miracles, returning to die at +the age of ninety-four. He was buried on the top of Agamenticus, Maine, +where his manes were pacified with offerings of three thousand slain +animals, and where his tombstone stood for a century after, bearing the +legend, "Present, useful; absent, wanted; living, desired; dying, +lamented." + +By others Passaconaway is regarded as a different person. The Child of +the Bear--to English his name--was the chief of the Merrimacs and a +convert of the apostle Eliot. Natives and colonists alike admired him +for his eloquence, his bravery, and his virtue. Before his conversion +he was a reputed wizard who sought by magic arts to repel the invasion +of his woods and mountains by the white men, invoking the spirits of +nature against them from the topmost peak of the Agiochooks, and his +native followers declared that in pursuance of this intent he made water +burn, rocks move, trees dance, and transformed himself into a mass of +flame. + +Such was his power over the forces of the earth that he could burn a +tree in winter and from its ashes bring green leaves; he made dead wood +blossom and a farmer's flail to bud, while a snake's skin he could cause +to run. At the age of one hundred and twenty he retired from his tribe +and lived in a lonely wigwam among the Pennacooks. One winter night the +howling of wolves was heard, and a pack came dashing through the village +harnessed by threes to a sledge of hickory saplings that bore a tall +throne spread with furs. The wolves paused at Passaconaway's door. The +old chief came forth, climbed upon the sledge, and was borne away with a +triumphal apostrophe that sounded above the yelping and snarling of his +train. Across Winnepesaukee's frozen surface they sped like the wind, +and the belated hunter shrank aside as he saw the giant towering against +the northern lights and heard his death-song echo from the cliffs. +Through pathless woods, across ravines, the wolves sped on, with never +slackened speed, into the mazes of the Agiochooks to that highest peak +we now call Washington. Up its steep wilderness of snow the ride went +furiously; the summit was neared, the sledge burst into flame, still +there was no pause; the height was gained, the wolves went howling into +darkness, but the car, wrapped in sheaves of fire, shot like a meteor +toward the sky and was lost amid the stars of the winter night. So +passed the Indian king to heaven. + + + + + THE BALL GAME BY THE SACO + +Water-Goblins from the streams about Katahdin had left their birthplace +and journeyed away to the Agiochooks, making their presence known to the +Indians of that region by thefts and loss of life. When the manitou, +Glooskap, learned that these goblins were eating human flesh and +committing other outrages, he took on their own form, turning half his +body into stone, and went in search of them. The, wigwam had been +pitched near the Home of the Water Fairies,--a name absurdly changed by +the people of North Conway to Diana's Bath,--and on entering he was +invited to take meat. The tail of a whale was cooked and offered to +him, but after he had taken it upon his knees one of the goblins +exclaimed, "That is too good for a beggar like you," and snatched it +away. Glooskap had merely to wish the return of the dainty when it flew +back into his platter. Then he took the whale's jaw, and snapped it +like a reed; he filled his pipe and burned the tobacco to ashes in one +inhalation; when his hosts closed the wigwam and smoked vigorously, +intending to foul the air and stupefy him, he enjoyed it, while they +grew sick; so they whispered to each other, "This is a mighty magician, +and we must try his powers in another way." + +A game of ball was proposed, and, adjourning to a sandy level at the +bend of the Saco, they began to play, but Glooskap found that the ball +was a hideous skull that rolled and snapped at him and would have torn +his flesh had it not been immortal and immovable from his bones. He +crushed it at a blow, and breaking off the bough of a tree he turned it +by a word into a skull ten times larger than the other that flew after +the wicked people as a wildcat leaps upon a rabbit. Then the god +stamped on the sands and all the springs were opened in the mountains, +so that the Saco came rising through the valley with a roar that made +the nations tremble. The goblins were caught in the flood and swept +into the sea, where Glooskap changed them into fish. + + + + + THE WHITE MOUNTAINS + +From times of old these noble hills have been the scenes of supernatural +visitations and mysterious occurrences. The tallest peak of the +Agiochooks--as they were, in Indian naming--was the seat of God himself, +and the encroachment there of the white man was little liked. Near +Fabyan's was once a mound, since levelled by pick and spade, that was +known as the Giant's Grave. Ethan Allen Crawford, a skilful hunter, +daring explorer, and man of herculean frame, lived, died, and is buried +here, and near the ancient hillock he built one of the first public +houses in the mountains. It was burned. Another, and yet another +hostelry was builded on the site, but they likewise were destroyed by +fire. Then the enterprise was abandoned, for it was remembered that an +Indian once mounted this grave, waved a torch from its top, and cried in +a loud voice, "No pale-face shall take root on this spot. This has the +Great Spirit whispered in my ear." + +Governor Wentworth, while on a lonely tour through his province, found +this cabin of Crawford's and passed a night there, tendering many +compliments to the austere graces of the lady of the house and drinking +himself into the favor of the husband, who proclaimed him the prince of +good fellows. On leaving, the guest exacted of Crawford a visit to +Wolfeborough, where he was to inquire for "Old Wentworth." This visit +was undertaken soon after, and the sturdy frontiersman was dismayed at +finding himself in the house of the royal governor; but his reception +was hearty enough to put him at his ease, and when he returned to the +mountains he carried in his pocket a deed of a thousand acres of forest +about his little farm. The family that he founded became wealthy and +increased, by many an acre, the measure of that royal grant. + +Not far below this spot, in the wildest part of the Notch, shut in by +walls of rock thousands of feet high, is the old Willey House, and this, +too, was the scene of a tragedy, for in 1826 a storm loosened the soil +on Mount Willey and an enormous landslide occurred. The people in the +house rushed forth on hearing the approach of the slide and met death +almost at their door. Had they remained within they would have been +unharmed, for the avalanche was divided by a wedge of rock behind the +house, and the little inn was saved. Seven people are known to have +been killed, and it was rumored that there was another victim in a young +man whose name was unknown and who was walking through the mountains to +enjoy their beauty. The messenger who bore the tidings of the +destruction of the family was barred from reaching North Conway by the +flood in the Saco, so he stood at the brink of the foaming river and +rang a peal on a trumpet. This blast echoing around the hills in the +middle of the night roused several men from their beds to know its +meaning. The dog belonging to the inn is said to have given first +notice to people below the Notch that something was wrong, but his +moaning and barking were misunderstood, and after running back and +forth, as if to summon help, he disappeared. At the hour of the +accident James Willey, of Conway, had a dream in which he saw his dead +brother standing by him. He related the story of the catastrophe to the +sleeping man and said that when "the world's last knell" sounded they +were going for safety to the foot of the steep mountain, for the Saco +had risen twenty-four feet in seven hours and threatened to ingulf them +in front. + +Another spot of interest in the Notch is Nancy's Brook. It was at the +point where this stream comes foaming from Mount Nancy into the great +ravine that the girl whose name is given to it was found frozen to death +in a shroud of snow in the fall of 1788. She had set out alone from +Jefferson in search of a young farmer who was to have married her, and +walked thirty miles through trackless snow between sunset and dawn. +Then her strength gave out and she sank beside the road never to rise +again. Her recreant lover went mad with remorse when he learned the +manner of her death and did not long survive her, and men who have +traversed the savage passes of the Notch on chill nights in October have +fancied that they heard, above the clash of the stream and whispering of +the woods, long, shuddering groans mingled with despairing cries and +gibbering laughter. + +The birth of Peabody River came about from a cataclysm of less violent +nature than some of the avalanches that have so scarred the mountains. +In White's "History of New England," Mr. Peabody, for whom the stream is +named, is reported as having taken shelter in an Indian cabin on the +heights where the river has its source. During the night a loud roaring +waked the occupants of the hut and they sprang forth, barely in time to +save their lives; for, hardly had they gained the open ground before a +cavern burst open in the hill and a flood of water gushed out, sweeping +away the shelter and cutting a broad swath through the forest. + +Although the Pilot Mountains are supposed to have taken their name from +the fact that they served as landmarks to hunters who were seeking the +Connecticut River from the Lancaster district, an old story is still +told of one Willard, who was lost amid the defiles of this range, and +nearly perished with hunger. While lying exhausted on the mountainside +his dog would leave him every now and then and return after a couple of +hours. Though Willard was half dead, he determined to use his last +strength in following the animal, and as a result was led by a short cut +to his own camp, where provisions were plenty, and where the intelligent +creature had been going for food. The dog was christened Pilot, in +honor of this service, and the whole range is thought by many to be +named in his honor. + +Waternomee Falls, on Hurricane Creek, at Warren, are bordered with rich +moss where fairies used to dance and sing in the moonlight. These +sprites were the reputed children of Indians that had been stolen from +their wigwams and given to eat of fairy bread, that dwarfed and changed +them in a moment. Barring their kidnapping practices the elves were an +innocent and joyous people, and they sought more distant hiding-places +in the wilderness when the stern churchmen and cruel rangers penetrated +their sylvan precincts. + +An old barrack story has it that Lieutenant Chamberlain, who fought +under Lovewell, was pursued along the base of Melvin Peak by Indians and +was almost in their grasp when he reached Ossipee Falls. It seemed as +if there were no alternative between death by the tomahawk and death by +a fall to the rocks below, for the chasm here is eighteen feet wide; but +without stopping to reckon chances he put his strength into a running +jump, and to the amazement of those in pursuit and perhaps to his own +surprise he cleared the gap and escaped into the woods. The foremost of +the Indians attempted the leap, but plunged to his death in the ravine. + +The Eagle Range was said to be the abode, two hundred years ago, of a +man of strange and venerable appearance, whom the Indians regarded with +superstitious awe and never tried to molest. He slept in a cave on the +south slope and ranged the forest in search of game, muttering and +gesturing to himself. He is thought to be identified with Thomas +Crager, whose wife had been hanged in Salem as a witch, and whose only +child had been stolen by Indians. After a long, vain search for the +little one he gave way to a bitter moroseness, and avoided the +habitations of civilized man and savages alike. It is a satisfaction to +know that before he died he found his daughter, though she was the squaw +of an Indian hunter and was living with his tribe on the shore of the +St. Lawrence. + + + + + THE VISION ON MOUNT ADAMS + +There are many traditions connected with Mount Adams that have faded out +of memory. Old people remember that in their childhood there was talk +of the discovery of a magic stone; of an Indian's skeleton that appeared +in a speaking storm; of a fortune-teller that set off on a midnight +quest, far up among the crags and eyries. In October, 1765, a +detachment of nine of Rogers's Rangers began the return from a Canadian +foray, bearing with them plate, candlesticks, and a silver statue that +they had rifled from the Church of St. Francis. An Indian who had +undertaken to guide the party through the Notch proved faithless, and +led them among labyrinthine gorges to the head of Israel's River, where +he disappeared, after poisoning one of the troopers with a rattlesnake's +fang. Losing all reckoning, the Rangers tramped hither and thither +among the snowy hills and sank down, one by one, to die in the +wilderness, a sole survivor reaching a settlement after many days, with +his knapsack filled with human flesh. + +In 1816 the candlesticks were recovered near Lake Memphremagog, but the +statue has never been laid hold upon. The spirits of the famished men +were wont, for many winters, to cry in the woods, and once a hunter, +camped on the side of Mount Adams, was awakened at midnight by the notes +of an organ. The mists were rolling off, and he found that he had gone +to sleep near a mighty church of stone that shone in soft light. The +doors were flung back, showing a tribe of Indians kneeling within. +Candles sparkled on the altar, shooting their rays through clouds of +incense, and the rocks shook with thunder-gusts of music. Suddenly +church, lights, worshippers vanished, and from the mists came forth a +line of uncouth forms, marching in silence. As they started to descend +the mountain a silver image, floating in the air, spread a pair of +gleaming pinions and took flight, disappearing in the chaos of +battlemented rocks above. + + + + + THE GREAT CARBUNCLE + +High on the eastern face of Mount Monroe shone the Great Carbuncle, its +flash scintillating for miles by day, its dusky crimson glowing among +the ledges at night. The red men said that it hung in the air, and that +the soul of an Indian--killed, that he might guard the spot--made +approach perilous to men of all complexions and purposes. As late as +Ethan Crawford's time one search band took a "good man" to lay the +watcher, when they strove to scale the height, but they returned "sorely +bruised, treasureless, and not even saw that wonderful sight." The +value of the stone tempted many, but those who sought it had to toil +through a dense forest, and on arriving at the mountain found its +glories eclipsed by intervening abutments, nor could they get near it. +Rocks covered with crystals, at first thought to be diamonds, were +readily despoiled of their treasure, but the Great Carbuncle burned on, +two thousand feet above them, at the head of the awful chasm of Oakes +Gulf, and baffled seekers likened it to the glare of an evil eye. + +There was one who had grown old in searching for this gem, often +scrambling over the range in wind and snow and cloud, and at last he +reached a precipitous spot he had never attained before. Great was his +joy, for the Carbuncle was within his reach, blazing into his eyes in +the noon sunlight as if it held, crystallized in its depths, the +brightness of all the wine that had ever gladdened the tired hearts of +men. There were rivals in the search, and on reaching the plateau they +looked up and saw him kneeling on a narrow ledge with arms extended as +in rapture. They called to him. He answered not. He was dead--dead of +joy and triumph. While they looked a portion of the crag above him fell +away and rolled from rock to rock, marking its course with flashes of +bloody fire, until it reached the Lake of the Clouds, and the waters of +that tarn drowned its glory. Yet those waters are not always black, and +sometimes the hooked crest of Mount Monroe is outlined against the night +sky in a ruddy glow. + + + + + SKINNER'S CAVE + +The abhorrence to paying taxes and duties--or any other levy from which +an immediate and personal good is not promised--is too deeply rooted in +human nature to be affected by statutes, and whenever it is possible +to buy commodities that have escaped the observation of the revenue +officers many are tempted to do so for the mere pleasure of defying the +law. In the early part of this century the northern farmers and their +wives were, in a way, providing themselves with laces, silver-ware, +brandy, and other protected and dreadful articles, on which it was +evident that somebody had forgotten to pay duty. The customs +authorities on the American side of the border were long puzzled by the +irruption of these forbidden things, but suspicion ultimately fell on a +fellow of gigantic size, named Skinner. + +It was believed that this outlaw carried on the crime of free trade +after sunset, hiding his merchandise by day on the islands of Lake +Memphremagog. This delightful sheet of water lies half in Canada and +half in Vermont--agreeably to the purpose of such as he. Province +Island is still believed to contain buried treasure, but the rock that +contains Skinner's Cave was the smuggler's usual haunt, and when pursued +he rowed to this spot and effected a disappearance, because he entered +the cave on the northwest side, where it was masked by shrubbery. One +night the officers landed on this island after he had gone into hiding, +and after diligent search discovered his boat drawn up in a covert. +They pushed it into the lake, where the winds sent it adrift, and, his +communication with the shore thus cut off, the outlaw perished miserably +of hunger. His skeleton was found in the cavern some years later. + + + + + YET THEY CALL IT LOVER'S LEAP + +In the lower part of the township of Cavendish, Vermont, the Black River +seeks a lower level through a gorge in the foot-hills of the Green +Mountains. The scenery here is romantic and impressive, for the river +makes its way along the ravine in a series of falls and rapids that are +overhung by trees and ledges, while the geologist finds something worth +looking at in the caves and pot-holes that indicate an older level of +the river. At a turn in the ravine rises the sheer precipice of Lover's +Leap. It is a vertical descent of about eighty feet, the water swirling +at its foot in a black and angry maelstrom. It is a spot whence lovers +might easily step into eternity, were they so disposed, and the name +fits delightfully into the wild and somber scene; but ask any good +villager thereabout to relate the legend of the place and he will tell +you this: + +About forty years ago a couple of young farmers went to the Leap--which +then had no name--to pry out some blocks of the schistose rock for a +foundation wall. They found a good exposure of the rock beneath the +turf and began to quarry it. In the earnestness of the work one of the +men forgot that he was standing on the verge of a precipice, and through +a slip of his crowbar he lost his balance and went reeling into the +gulf. His horrified companion crept to the edge, expecting to see his +mangled corpse tossing in the whirlpool, but, to his amazement, the +unfortunate was crawling up the face of a huge table of stone that had +fallen from the opposite wall and lay canted against it. + +"Hello!" shouted the man overhead. "Are you hurt much?" + +The victim of the accident slowly got upon his feet, felt cautiously of +his legs and ribs, and began to search through his pockets, his face +betraying an anxiety that grew deeper and deeper as the search went on. +In due time the answer came back, deliberate, sad, and nasal, but +distinct above the roar of the torrent: "Waal, I ain't hurt much, but +I'll be durned if I haven't lost my jack-knife!" + +And he was pulled out of the gorge without it. + + + + + SALEM AND OTHER WITCHCRAFT + +The extraordinary delusion recorded as Salem witchcraft was but a +reflection of a kindred insanity in the Old World that was not +extirpated until its victims had been counted by thousands. That human +beings should be accused of leaguing themselves with Satan to plague +their fellows and overthrow the powers of righteousness is remarkable, +but that they should admit their guilt is incomprehensible, albeit the +history of every popular delusion shows that weak minds are so affected +as to lose control of themselves and that a whimsey can be as epidemic +as small-pox. + +Such was the case in 1692 when the witchcraft madness, which might +have been stayed by a seasonable spanking, broke out in Danvers, +Massachusetts, the first victim being a wild Irishwoman, named Glover, +and speedily involved the neighboring community of Salem. The mischiefs +done by witches were usually trifling, and it never occurred to their +prosecutors that there was an inconsistency between their pretended +powers and their feeble deeds, or that it was strange that those who +might live in regal luxury should be so wretchedly poor. Aches and +pains, blight of crops, disease of cattle, were charged to them; +children complained of being pricked with thorns and pins (the pins are +still preserved in Salem), and if hysterical girls spoke the name of any +feeble old woman, while in flighty talk, they virtually sentenced her to +die. The word of a child of eleven years sufficed to hang, burn, or +drown a witch. + +Giles Corey, a blameless man of eighty, was condemned to the mediaeval +/peine forte et dure/, his body being crushed beneath a load of rocks +and timbers. He refused to plead in court, and when the beams were laid +upon him he only cried, "More weight!" The shade of the unhappy victim +haunted the scene of his execution for years, and always came to warn +the people of calamities. A child of five and a dog were also hanged +after formal condemnation. Gallows Hill, near Salem, witnessed many sad +tragedies, and the old elm that stood on Boston Common until 1876 was +said to have served as a gallows for witches and Quakers. The accuser +of one day was the prisoner of the next, and not even the clergy were +safe. + +A few escapes were made, like that of a blue-eyed maid of Wenham, whose +lover aided her to break the wooden jail and carried her safely beyond +the Merrimac, finding a home for her among the Quakers; and that of Miss +Wheeler, of Salem, who had fallen under suspicion, and whose brothers +hurried her into a boat, rowed around Cape Ann, and safely bestowed her +in "the witch house" at Pigeon Cove. Many, however, fled to other towns +rather than run the risk of accusation, which commonly meant death. + +When the wife of Philip English was arrested he, too, asked to share her +fate, and both were, through friendly intercession, removed to Boston, +where they were allowed to have their liberty by day on condition that +they would go to jail every night. Just before they were to be taken +back to Salem for trial they went to church and heard the Rev. Joshua +Moody preach from the text, "If they persecute you in one city, flee +unto another." The good clergyman not only preached goodness, but +practised it, and that night the door of their prison was opened. +Furnished with an introduction from Governor Phipps to Governor +Fletcher, of New York, they made their way to that settlement, and +remained there in safe and courteous keeping until the people of Salem +had regained their senses, when they returned. Mrs. English died, soon +after, from the effects of cruelty and anxiety, and although Mr. Moody +was generally commended for his substitution of sense and justice for +law, there were bigots who persecuted him so constantly that he removed +to Plymouth. + +According to the belief of the time a witch or wizard compacted with +Satan for the gift of supernatural power, and in return was to give up +his soul to the evil one after his life was over. The deed was signed +in blood of the witch and horrible ceremonies confirmed the compact. +Satan then gave his ally a familiar in the form of a dog, ape, cat, or +other animal, usually small and black, and sometimes an undisguised imp. +To suckle these "familiars" with the blood of a witch was forbidden in +English law, which ranked it as a felony; but they were thus nourished +in secret, and by their aid the witch might raise storms, blight crops, +abort births, lame cattle, topple over houses, and cause pains, +convulsions, and illness. If she desired to hurt a person she made a +clay or waxen image in his likeness, and the harms and indignities +wreaked on the puppet would be suffered by the one bewitched, a knife or +needle thrust in the waxen body being felt acutely by the living one, no +matter how far distant he might be. By placing this image in running +water, hot sunshine, or near a fire, the living flesh would waste as +this melted or dissolved, and the person thus wrought upon would die. +This belief is still current among negroes affected by the voodoo +superstitions of the South. The witch, too, had the power of riding +winds, usually with a broomstick for a conveyance, after she had smeared +the broom or herself with magic ointment, and the flocking of the +unhallowed to their sabbaths in snaky bogs or on lonely mountain tops +has been described minutely by those who claim to have seen the sight. +Sometimes they cackled and gibbered through the night before the houses +of the clergy, and it was only at Christmas that their power failed +them. The meetings were devoted to wild and obscene orgies, and the +intercourse of fiends and witches begot a progeny of toads and snakes. + +Naturally the Indians were accused, for they recognized the existence of +both good and evil spirits, their medicine-men cured by incantations in +the belief that devils were thus driven out of their patients, and in +the early history of the country the red man was credited by white +settlers with powers hardly inferior to those of the oriental and +European magicians of the middle ages. Cotton Mather detected a +relation between Satan and the Indians, and he declares that certain of +the Algonquins were trained from boyhood as powahs, powwows, or wizards, +acquiring powers of second sight and communion with gods and spirits +through abstinence from food and sleep and the observance of rites. +Their severe discipline made them victims of nervous excitement and the +responsibilities of conjuration had on their minds an effect similar to +that produced by gases from the rift in Delphos on the Apollonian +oracles, their manifestations of insanity or frenzy passing for deific +or infernal possession. When John Gibb, a Scotchman, who had gone mad +through religious excitement, was shipped to this country by his tired +fellow-countrymen, the Indians hailed him as a more powerful wizard than +any of their number, and he died in 1720, admired and feared by them +because of the familiarity with spirits out of Hobbomocko (hell) that +his ravings and antics were supposed to indicate. Two Indian servants +of the Reverend Mr. Purvis, of Salem, having tried by a spell to +discover a witch, were executed as witches themselves. The savages, +who took Salem witchcraft at its worth, were astonished at its deadly +effect, and the English may have lost some influence over the natives in +consequence of this madness. "The Great Spirit sends no witches to the +French," they said. Barrow Hill, near Amesbury, was said to be the +meeting-place for Indian powwows and witches, and at late hours of the +night the light of fires gleamed from its top, while shadowy forms +glanced athwart it. Old men say that the lights are still there in +winter, though modern doubters declare that they were the aurora +borealis. + +But the belief in witches did not die even when the Salem people came to +their senses. In the Merrimac valley the devil found converts for many +years after: Goody Mose, of Rocks village, who tumbled down-stairs when +a big beetle was killed at an evening party, some miles away, after it +had been bumping into the faces of the company; Goody Whitcher, of +Ameshury, whose loom kept banging day and night after she was dead; +Goody Sloper, of West Newbury, who went home lame directly that a man +had struck his axe into the beam of a house that she had bewitched, but +who recovered her strength and established an improved reputation when, +in 1794, she swam out to a capsized boat and rescued two of the people +who were in peril; Goodman Nichols, of Rocks village, who "spelled" a +neighbor's son, compelling him to run up one end of the house, along the +ridge, and down the other end, "troubling the family extremely by his +strange proceedings;" Susie Martin, also of Rocks, who was hanged in +spite of her devotions in jail, though the rope danced so that it could +not be tied, but a crow overhead called for a withe and the law was +executed with that; and Goody Morse, of Market and High Streets, +Newburyport, whose baskets and pots danced through her house continually +and who was seen "flying about the sun as if she had been cut in twain, +or as if the devil did hide the lower part of her." The hill below +Easton, Pennsylvania, called Hexenkopf (Witch's head), was described by +German settlers as a place of nightly gathering for weird women, who +whirled about its top in "linked dances" and sang in deep tones mingled +with awful laughter. After one of these women, in Williams township, +had been punished for enchanting a twenty-dollar horse, their sabbaths +were held more quietly. Mom Rinkle, whose "rock" is pointed out beside +the Wissahickon, in Philadelphia, "drank dew from acorn-cups and had the +evil eye." Juan Perea, of San Mateo, New Mexico, would fly with his +chums to meetings in the mountains in the shape of a fire-ball. During +these sallies he left his own eyes at home and wore those of some brute +animal. It was because his dog ate his eyes when he had carelessly put +them on a table that he had always afterward to wear those of a cat. +Within the present century an old woman who lived in a hut on the +Palisades of the Hudson was held to be responsible for local storms and +accidents. As late as 1889 two Zuni Indians were hanged on the wall of +an old Spanish church near their pueblo in Arizona on a charge of having +blown away the rainclouds in a time of drouth. It was held that there +was something uncanny in the event that gave the name of Gallows Hill to +an eminence near Falls Village, Connecticut, for a strange black man was +found hanging, dead, to a tree near its top one morning. + +Moll Pitcher, a successful sorcerer and fortune-teller of old Lynn, has +figured in obsolete poems, plays, and romances. She lived in a cottage +at the foot of High Rock, where she was consulted, not merely by people +of respectability, but by those who had knavish schemes to prosecute and +who wanted to learn in advance the outcome of their designs. Many a +ship was deserted at the hour of sailing because she boded evil of the +voyage. She was of medium height, big-headed, tangle-haired, long- +nosed, and had a searching black eye. The sticks that she carried were +cut from a hazel that hung athwart a brook where an unwedded mother had +drowned her child. A girl who went to her for news of her lover lost +her reason when the witch, moved by a malignant impulse, described his +death in a fiercely dramatic manner. One day the missing ship came +bowling into port, and the shock of joy that the girl experienced when +the sailor clasped her in his arms restored her erring senses. When +Moll Pitcher died she was attended by the little daughter of the woman +she had so afflicted. + +John, or Edward, Dimond, grandfather of Moll Pitcher, was a benevolent +wizard. When vessels were trying to enter the port of Marblehead in a +heavy gale or at night, their crews were startled to hear a trumpet +voice pealing from the skies, plainly audible above the howling and +hissing of any tempest, telling them how to lay their course so as to +reach smooth water. This was the voice of Dimond, speaking from his +station, miles away in the village cemetery. He always repaired to this +place in troublous weather and shouted orders to the ships that were +made visible to him by mystic power as he strode to and fro among the +graves. When thieves came to him for advice he charmed them and made +them take back their plunder or caused them to tramp helplessly about +the streets bearing heavy burdens. + + "Old Mammy Redd, of Marblehead, + Sweet milk could turn to mould in churn." + +Being a witch, and a notorious one, she could likewise curdle the milk +as it came from the cow, and afterward transform it into blue wool. She +had the evil eye, and, if she willed, her glance or touch could blight +like palsy. It only needed that she should wish a bloody cleaver to be +found in a cradle to cause the little occupant to die, while the whole +town ascribed to her the annoyances of daily housework and business. +Her unpleasant celebrity led to her death at the hands of her fellow- +citizens who had been "worrited" by no end of queer happenings: ships +had appeared just before they were wrecked and had vanished while people +looked at them; men were seen walking on the water after they had been +comfortably buried; the wind was heard to name the sailors doomed never +to return; footsteps and voices were heard in the streets before the +great were to die; one man was chased by a corpse in its coffin; another +was pursued by the devil in a carriage drawn by four white horses; a +young woman who had just received a present of some fine fish from her +lover was amazed to see him melt into the air, and was heart-broken when +she learned next morning that he had died at sea. So far away as +Amesbury the devil's power was shown by the appearance of a man who +walked the roads carrying his head under his arm, and by the freak of a +windmill that the miller always used to shut up at sundown but that +started by itself at midnight. Evidently it was high time to be rid of +Mammy Redd. + +Margaret Wesson, "old Meg," lived in Gloucester until she came to her +death by a shot fired at the siege of Louisburg, five hundred miles +away, in 1745. Two soldiers of Gloucester, while before the walls of +the French town, were annoyed by a crow, that flew over and around them, +cawing harshly and disregarding stones and shot, until it occurred to +them that the bird could be no other than old Meg in another form, and, +as silver bullets are an esteemed antidote for the evils of witchcraft, +they cut two silver buttons from their uniforms and fired them at the +crow. At the first shot its leg was broken; at the second, it fell +dead. On returning to Gloucester they learned that old Meg had fallen +and broken her leg at the moment when the crow was fired on, and that +she died quickly after. An examination of her body was made, and the +identical buttons were extracted from her flesh that had been shot into +the crow at Louisburg. + +As a citizen of New Haven was riding home--this was at the time of the +goings on at Salem--he saw shapes of women near his horse's head, +whispering earnestly together and keeping time with the trot of his +animal without effort of their own. "In the name of God, tell me who +you are," cried the traveller, and at the name of God they vanished. +Next day the man's orchard was shaken by viewless hands and the fruit +thrown down. Hogs ran about the neighborhood on their hind legs; +children cried that somebody was sticking pins into them; one man would +roll across the floor as if pushed, and he had to be watched lest he +should go into the fire; when housewives made their bread they found it +as full of hair as food in a city boarding-house; when they made soft +soap it ran from the kettle and over the floor like lava; stones fell +down chimneys and smashed crockery. One of the farmers cut off an ear +from a pig that was walking on its hind legs, and an eccentric old body +of the neighborhood appeared presently with one of her ears in a muffle, +thus satisfying that community that she had caused the troubles. When a +woman was making potash it began to leap about, and a rifle was fired +into the pot, causing a sudden calm. In the morning the witch was found +dead on her floor. Yet killing only made her worse, for she moved to a +deserted house near her own, and there kept a mad revel every night; +fiddles were heard, lights flashed, stones were thrown, and yells gave +people at a distance a series of cold shivers; but the populace tried +the effect of tearing down the house, and quiet was brought to the town. + +In the early days of this century a skinny old woman known as Aunt +Woodward lived by herself in a log cabin at Minot Corner, Maine, +enjoying the awe of the people in that secluded burg. They moved around +but little at night, on her account, and one poor girl was in mortal +fear lest by mysterious arts she should be changed, between two days, +into a white horse. One citizen kept her away from his house by nailing +a horseshoe to his door, while another took the force out of her spells +by keeping a branch of "round wood" at his threshold. At night she +haunted a big, square house where the ghost of a murdered infant was +often heard to cry, and by day she laid charms on her neighbors' +provisions and utensils, and turned their cream to buttermilk. "Uncle" +Blaisdell hurried into the settlement to tell the farmers that Aunt +Woodward had climbed into his sled in the middle of the road, and that +his four yoke of oxen could not stir it an inch, but that after she had +leaped down one yoke of cattle drew the load of wood without an effort. +Yet she died in her bed. + + + + + THE GLOUCESTER LEAGUERS + +Strange things had been reported in Gloucester. On the eve of King +Philip's War the march of men was heard in its streets and an Indian bow +and scalp were seen on the face of the moon, while the boom of cannon +and roll of drums were heard at Malden and the windows of Plymouth +rattled to the passage of unseen horsemen. But the strangest thing was +the arrival on Cape Ann of a force of French and Indians that never +could be caught, killed, or crippled, though two regiments were hurried +into Gloucester and battled with them for a fortnight. Thus, the rumor +went around that these were not an enemy of flesh and blood, but devils +who hoped to work a moral perversion of the colony. From 1692, when +they appeared, until Salem witchcraft was at an end, Cape Ann was under +military and spiritual guard against "the spectre leaguers." + +Another version of the episode, based on sworn evidence, has it that +Ebenezer Babson, returning late on a summer night, saw two men run from +his door and vanish in a field. His family denied that visitors had +called, so he gave chase, for he believed the men to have a mischievous +intention. As he left the threshold they sprang from behind a log, one +saying to the other, "The master of the house is now come, else we might +have taken the house," and again they disappeared in a swamp. Babson +woke the guard, and on entering the quarters of the garrison the sound +of many feet was heard without, but when the doors were flung open only +the two men were visible and they were retreating. Next evening the +yeoman was chased by these elusive gentry, who were believed to be +scouts of the enemy, for they wore white breeches and waistcoats and +carried bright guns. + +For several nights they appeared, and on the 4th of July half a dozen of +them were seen so plainly that the soldiers made a sally, Babson +bringing three of "ye unaccountable troublers" to the ground with a +single shot, and getting a response in kind, for a bullet hissed by his +ear and buried itself in a tree. When the company approached the place +where lay the victims of that remarkable shot, behold, they arose and +scampered away as blithely as if naught had happened to them. One of +the trio was cornered and shot anew, but when they would pick him up he +melted into air. There was fierce jabbering in an unknown tongue, +through all the swamp, and by the time the garrison had returned the +fellows were skulking in the shrubbery again. Richard Dolliver +afterward came on eleven of them engaged in incantations and scattered +them with a gunshot, but they would not down. They lurked about the +cape until terror fell on all the people, remaining for "the best part +of a month together," so it was deemed that "Satan had set ambushments +against the good people of Gloucester, with demons in the shape of armed +Indians and Frenchmen." + +Stones were thrown, barns were beaten with clubs, the marching of unseen +hosts was heard after dark, the mockers grew so bold that they ventured +close to the redoubtable Babson, gazed scornfully down the barrel of his +gun, and laid a charm on the weapon, so that, no matter how often he +snapped it at them, it flashed in the pan. Neighboring garrisons were +summoned, but all battling with goblins was fruitless. One night a dark +and hostile throng emerged from the wood and moved toward the +blockhouse, where twenty musketeers were keeping guard. "If you be +ghosts or devils I will foil you," cried the captain, and tearing a +silver button from his doublet he rammed it into his gun and fired on +the advancing host. Even as the smoke of his musket was blown on the +wind, so did the beleaguering army vanish, the silver bullet proving +that they were not of human kind. The night was wearing on when a cry +went out that the devils were coming again. Arms were laid aside this +time, and the watchers sank to their knees in prayer. Directly that the +name of God was uttered the marching ceased and heaven rang with the +howls of the angry fiends. Never again were leaguers seen in +Gloucester. + + + + + SATAN AND HIS BURIAL-PLACE + +Satan appears to have troubled the early settlers in America almost as +grievously as he did the German students. He came in many shapes to +many people, and sometimes he met his match. Did he not try to stop old +Peter Stuyvesant from rowing through Hell Gate one moonlight night, and +did not that tough old soldier put something at his shoulder that Satan +thought must be his wooden leg? But it wasn't a leg: it was a gun, +loaded with a silver bullet that had been charged home with prayer. +Peter fired and the missile whistled off to Ward's Island, where three +boys found it afterward and swapped it for double handfuls of doughnuts +and bulls' eyes. Incidentally it passed between the devil's ribs and +the fiend exploded with a yell and a smell, the latter of sulphur, to +Peter's blended satisfaction and alarm. And did not the same spirit of +evil plague the old women of Massachusetts Bay and craze the French and +Spaniards in the South? At Hog Rock, west of Milford, Connecticut, he +broke up a pleasant diversion: + + "Once four young men upon ye rock + Sate down at chuffle board to play + When ye Deuill appearde in shape of a hogg + And frightend ym so they scampered away + And left Old Nick to finish ye play." + +One of the first buildings to be put up in Ipswich, Massachusetts, was a +church built on a ledge above the river, and in that church Satan tried +to conceal himself for purposes of mischief. For this act he was hurled +from the steeple-top by some unseen instrument of righteousness with +such force that his hoofmark was stamped into a solid stone near by. +This did not deter him from mounting to the ridge-pole and assuming a +defiant air, with folded arms, when Whitefield began to preach, but when +that clergyman's tremendous voice was loosed below him he bounced into +the air in terror and disappeared. + +The Shakers report that in the waning of the eighteenth century they +chased the evil one through the coverts of Mount Sinai, Massachusetts, +and just before dawn of a summer morning they caught and killed and +buried him. Shakers are spiritualists, and they believe their numbers +to have been augmented by distinguished dead, among whom they already +number Washington, Lafayette, Napoleon, Tamerlane, and Pocahontas. The +two first named of these posthumous communists are still seen by members +of the faith who pass Satan's grave at night, for they sit astride of +white horses and watch the burial spot, lest the enemy of man arise and +begin anew his career of trouble. Some members of the brotherhood say +that this legend typifies a burial of evil tendencies in the hearts of +those who hunted the fiend, but it has passed down among others as a +circumstance. The Shakers have many mystic records, transmitted +verbally to the present disciples of "Mother Ann," but seldom told to +scoffers "in the world," as those are called who live without their pure +and peaceful communes. Among these records is that of the appearance of +John the Baptist in the meeting-house at Mount Lebanon, New York, +one Sunday, clothed in light and leading the sacred dance of the +worshippers, by which they signify the shaking out of all carnal things +from the heart. + + + + + PETER RUGG, THE MISSING MAN + +The idea of long wandering as a penalty, symbolized in "The Wandering +Jew," "The Flying Dutchman," and the character of Kundry, in "Parsifal," +has application in the legend of Peter Rugg. This strange man, who +lived in Middle Street, Boston, with his wife and daughter, was +esteemed, as a person of probity and good manners except in his swearing +fits, for he was subject to outbursts of passion, when he would kick his +way through doors instead of opening them, bite tenpenny nails in two, +and curse his wig off In the autumn of 1770 he visited Concord, with his +little girl, and on the way home was overtaken by a violent storm. He +took shelter with a friend at Menotomy, who urged him to stay all night, +for the rain was falling heavier every moment; but Rugg would not be +stayed, and seeing that there was no hope of a dry journey back to town +he roared a fearful oath and cried, "Let the storm increase. I will see +home to-night in spite of it, or may I never see home!" With that he +tossed the child into the open chaise, leaped in after her, lashed his +horse, and was off. + +Several nights afterward, while Rugg's neighbors were out with lanterns +trying to discover the cause of a heavy jarring that had begun to +disturb them in bad weather, the excitable gentleman, who had not been +seen since his Concord visit, came whirling along the pavement in his +carriage, his daughter beside him, his black horse plunging on in spite +of his efforts to stop him. The lanterns that for a moment twinkled in +Peter's face showed him as a wet and weary man, with eyes turned up +longingly at the windows where his wife awaited him; then he was gone, +and the ground trembled as with an earthquake, while the rain fell more +heavily. + +Mrs. Rugg died within a twelvemonth, and Peter never reached home, but +from all parts of New England came stories of a man and child driving +rapidly along the highways, never stopping except to inquire the way to +Boston. Half of the time the man would be headed in a direction +opposite to the one he seemed to want to follow, and when set right +would cry that he was being deceived, and was sometimes heard to mutter, +"No home to-night." In Hartford, Providence, Newburyport, and among the +New Hampshire hills the anxious face of the man became known, and he was +referred to as "the stormbreeder," for so surely as he passed there +would be rain, wind, lightning, thunder, and darkness within the hour. + +Some years ago a man in a Connecticut town stopped this hurrying +traveller, who said, in reply to a question, "I have lost the road to +Boston. My name is Peter Rugg." Then Rugg's disappearance half a +century before was cited by those who had long memories, and people +began to look askant at Peter and gave him generous road room when they +met him. The toll-taker on Charlestown bridge declared that he had been +annoyed and alarmed by a prodigious tramping of hoofs and rattling of +wheels that seemed to pass toward Boston before his very face, yet he +could see nothing. He took courage one night to plant himself in the +middle of the bridge with a three-legged stool, and when the sound +approached he dimly saw a large black horse driven by a weary looking +man with a child beside him. The stool was flung at the horse's head, +but passed through the animal as through smoke and skipped across the +floor of the bridge. Thus much the toll-collector said, but when asked +if Rugg had appeared again he made no reply. + + + + + THE LOSS OF WEETAMOO + +Winnepurkit, sagamore of the coast settlements between Nahant and Cape +Ann, had married Weetamoo, daughter of Passaconaway, king of the +Pennacooks, and had taken her to his home. Their honeymoon was happy, +but old ties are strong, and after a little time the bride felt a +longing to see her people again. When she made known this wish the +husband not only consented to her visit, but gave her a guard of his +most trusty hunters who saw her safe in her father's lodge (near the +site of Concord, New Hampshire), and returned directly. Presently came +a messenger from Passaconaway, informing his son-in-law that Weetamoo +had finished her visit and wished again to be with her husband, to whom +he looked for an escort to guide her through the wilderness. +Winnepurkit felt that his dignity as a chief was slighted by this last +request, and he replied that as he had supplied her with a guard for the +outward journey it was her father's place to send her back, "for it +stood not with Winnepurkit's reputation either to make himself or his +men so servile as to fetch her again." + +Passaconaway returned a sharp answer that irritated Winnepurkit still +more, and he was told by the young sagamore that he might send his +daughter or keep her, for she would never be sent for. In this unhappy +strife for precedent, which has been repeated on later occasions by +princes and society persons, the young wife seemed to be fated as an +unwilling sacrifice; but summoning spirit to leave her father's wigwam +she launched a canoe on the Merrimack, hoping to make her way along that +watery highway to her husband's domain. It was winter, and the stream +was full of floating ice; at the best of times it was not easy to keep a +frail vessel of bark in the current away from the rapids, and a +wandering hunter reported that a canoe had come down the river guided by +a woman, that it had swung against the Amoskeag rocks, where Manchester +stands now, and a few moments later was in a quieter reach of water, +broken and empty. No more was seen of Weetamoo. + + + + + THE FATAL FORGET-ME-NOT + +Three miles out from the Nahant shore, Massachusetts, rises Egg Rock, +a dome of granite topped by a light-house. In the last century the +forget-me-nots that grew in a little marsh at its summit were much +esteemed, for it was reported that if a girl should receive one of these +little flowers from her lover the two would be faithful to each other +through all their married life. It was before a temporary separation +that a certain young couple strolled together on the Nahant cliffs. The +man was to sail for Italy next day, to urge parental consent to their +union. As he looked dreamily into the sea the legend of the forget-me- +not came into his mind, and in a playful tone he offered to gather a +bunch as a memento. Unthinkingly the girl consented. He ran down the +cliff to his boat, pushed out, and headed toward the rock, but a +fisherman shouted that a gale was rising and the tide was coming in; +indeed, the horizon was whitening and the rote was growing plain. + +Alice had heard the cry of warning and would have called him back, but +she was forsaken by the power of speech, and watched, with pale face and +straining eyes, the boat beating smartly across the surges. It was seen +to reach Egg Rock, and after a lapse came dancing toward the shore +again; but the tide, was now swirling in rapidly, the waves were running +high, and the wind freshened as the sun sank. At times the boat was out +of sight in the hollowed water, and as it neared Nahant it became +unmanageable. Apparently it had filled with water and the tiller-rope +had broken. Nothing could be done by the spectators who had gathered on +the rocks, except to shout directions that were futile, even if they +could be heard. At last the boat was lifted by a breaker and hurled +against a mass of granite at the very feet of the man's mistress. When +the body was recovered next day, a bunch of forget-me-not was clasped in +the rigid hand. + + + + + THE OLD MILL AT SOMERVILLE + +The "old powder-house," as the round stone tower is called that stands +on a gravel ridge in Somerville, Massachusetts, is so named because at +the outbreak of the Revolutionary War it was used temporarily as a +magazine; but long before that it was a wind-mill. Here in the old days +two lovers held their tryst: a sturdy and honest young farmer of the +neighborhood and the daughter of a man whose wealth puffed him with +purse-pride. It was the plebeian state of the farmer that made him look +at him with an unfavorable countenance, and when it was whispered to him +that the young people were meeting each other almost every evening at +the mill, he resolved to surprise them there and humiliate, if he did +not punish them. From the shadow of the door they saw his approach, +and, yielding to the girl's imploring, the lover secreted himself while +she climbed to the loft. The flutter of her dress caught the old man's +eye and he hastened, panting, into the mill. For some moments he groped +about, for his eyes had not grown used to the darkness of the place, and +hearing his muttered oaths, the girl crept backward from the stair. + +She was beginning to hope that she had not been seen, when her foot +caught in a loose board and she stumbled, but in her fall she threw out +her hand to save herself and found a rope within her grasp. Directly +that her weight had been applied to it there was a whir and a clank. +The cord had set the great fans in motion. At the same moment a fall +was heard, then a cry, passing from anger into anguish. She rushed down +the stair, the lover appeared from his hiding-place at the same moment, +and together they dragged the old man to his feet. At the moment when +the wind had started the sails he had been standing on one of the mill- +stones and the sudden jerk had thrown him down. His arm caught between +the grinding surfaces and had been crushed to pulp. He was carried home +and tenderly nursed, but he did not live long; yet before he died he was +made to see the folly of his course, and he consented to the marriage +that it had cost him so dear to try to prevent. Before she could summon +heart to fix the wedding-day the girl passed many months of grief and +repentance, and for the rest of her life she avoided the old mill. +There was good reason for doing so, people said, for on windy nights the +spirit of the old man used to haunt the place, using such profanity that +it became visible in the form of blue lights, dancing and exploding +about the building. + + + + + EDWARD RANDOLPH'S PORTRAIT + +Nothing is left of Province House, the old home of the royal governors, +in Boston, but the gilded Indian that served as its weathercock and +aimed his arrow at the winds from the cupola. The house itself was +swept away long ago in the so-called march of improvement. In one of +its rooms hung a picture so dark that when Lieutenant-Governor +Hutchinson went to live there hardly anybody could say what it +represented. There were hints that it was a portrait of the devil, +painted at a witch-meeting near Salem, and that on the eve of disasters +in the province a dreadful face had glared from the canvas. Shirley had +seen it on the night of the fall of Ticonderoga, and servants had gone +shuddering from the room, certain that they had caught the glance of a +malignant eye. + +It was known to the governors, however, that the portrait, if not that +of the arch fiend, was that of one who in the popular mind was none the +less a devil: Edward Randolph, the traitor, who had repealed the first +provincial charter and deprived the colonists of their liberties. Under +the curse of the people he grew pale and pinched and ugly, his face at +last becoming so hateful that men were unwilling to look at it. Then it +was that he sat for his portrait. Threescore or odd years afterward, +Hutchinson sat in the hall wondering vaguely if coming events would +consign him to the obloquy that had fallen on his predecessor, for at +his bidding a fleet had come into the harbor with three regiments of red +coats on board, despatched from Halifax to overawe the city. The coming +of the selectmen to protest against quartering these troops on the +people and the substitution of martial for civic law, interrupted his +reverie, and a warm debate arose. At last the governor seized his pen +impatiently, and cried, "The king is my master and England is my home. +Upheld by them, I defy the rabble." + +He was about to sign the order for bringing in the troops when a curtain +that had hung before the picture was drawn aside. Hutchinson stared at +the canvas in amazement, then muttered, "It is Randolph's spirit! It +wears the look of hell." The picture was seen to be that of a man in +antique garb, with a despairing, hunted, yet evil expression in the +face, and seemed to stare at Hutchinson. + +"It is a warning," said one of the company. + +Hutchinson recovered himself with an effort and turned away. "It is a +trick," he cried; and bending over the paper he fixed his name, as if in +desperate haste. Then he trembled, turned white, and wiped a sweat from +his brow. The selectmen departed in silence but in anger, and those who +saw Hutchinson on the streets next day affirmed that the portrait had +stepped out of its canvas and stood at his side through the night. +Afterward, as he lay on his death-bed, he cried that the blood of the +Boston massacre was filling his throat, and as his soul passed from him +his face, in its agony and rage, was the face of Edward Randolph. + + + + + LADY ELEANORE'S MANTLE + +Lady Eleanore Rochcliffe, being orphaned, was admitted to the family of +her distant relative, Governor Shute, of Massachusetts Bay, and came to +America to take her home with him. She arrived at the gates of Province +House, in Boston, in the governor's splendid coach, with outriders and +guards, and as the governor went to receive her, a pale young man, with +tangled hair, sprang from the crowd and fell in the dust at her feet, +offering himself as a footstool for her to tread upon. Her proud face +lighted with a smile of scorn, and she put out her hand to stay the +governor, who was in the act of striking the fellow with his cane. + +"Do not strike him," she said. "When men seek to be trampled, it is a +favor they deserve." + +For a moment she bore her weight on the prostrate form, "emblem of +aristocracy trampling on human sympathies and the kindred of nature," +and as she stood there the bell on South Church began to toll for a +funeral that was passing at the moment. The crowd started; some looked +annoyed; Lady Eleanore remained calm and walked in stately fashion up +the passage on the arm of His Excellency. "Who was that insolent +fellow?" was asked of Dr. Clarke, the governor's physician. + +"Gervase Helwyse," replied the doctor; "a youth of no fortune, but of +good mind until he met this lady in London, when he fell in love with +her, and her pride and scorn have crazed him." + +A few nights after a ball was given in honor of the governor's ward, +and Province House was filled with the elect of the city. Commanding +in figure, beautiful in face, richly dressed and jewelled, the Lady +Eleanore was the admired of the whole assembly, and the women were +especially curious to see her mantle, for a rumor went out that it had +been made by a dying girl, and had the magic power of giving new beauty +to the wearer every time it was put on. While the guests were taking +refreshment, a young man stole into the room with a silver goblet, and +this he offered on his knee to Lady Eleanore. As she looked down she +recognized the face of Helwyse. + +"Drink of this sacramental wine," he said, eagerly, "and pass it among +the guests." + +"Perhaps it is poisoned," whispered a man, and in another moment the +liquor was overturned, and Helwyse was roughly dragged away. + +"Pray, gentlemen, do not hurt my poor admirer," said the lady, in a tone +of languor and condescension that was unusual to her. Breaking from his +captives, Helwyse ran back and begged her to cast her mantle into the +fire. She replied by throwing a fold of it above her head and smiling +as she said, "Farewell. Remember me as you see me now." + +Helwyse shook his head sadly and submitted to be led away. The +weariness in Eleanore's manner increased; a flush was burning on her +cheek; her laugh had grown infrequent. Dr. Clarke whispered something +in the governor's ear that made that gentleman start and look alarmed. +It was announced that an unforeseen circumstance made it necessary to +close the festival at once, and the company went home. A few days after +the city was thrown into a panic by an outbreak of small-pox, a disease +that in those times could not be prevented nor often cured, and that +gathered its victims by thousands. Graves were dug in rows, and every +night the earth was piled hastily on fresh corpses. Before all infected +houses hung a red flag of warning, and Province House was the first to +show it, for the plague had come to town in Lady Eleanore's mantle. The +people cursed her pride and pointed to the flags as her triumphal +banners. The pestilence was at its height when Gervase Helwyse appeared +in Province House. There were none to stay him now, and he climbed the +stairs, peering from room to room, until he entered a darkened chamber, +where something stirred feebly under a silken coverlet and a faint voice +begged for water. Helwyse tore apart the curtains and exclaimed, "Fie! +What does such a thing as you in Lady Eleanore's apartment?" + +The figure on the bed tried to hide its hideous face. "Do not look on +me," it cried. "I am cursed for my pride that I wrapped about me as a +mantle. You are avenged. I am Eleanore Rochcliffe." + +The lunatic stared for a moment, then the house echoed with his +laughter. The deadly mantle lay on a chair. He snatched it up, and +waving also the red flag of the pestilence ran into the street. In a +short time an effigy wrapped in the mantle was borne to Province House +and set on fire by a mob. From that hour the pest abated and soon +disappeared, though graves and scars made a bitter memory of it for many +a year. Unhappiest of all was the disfigured creature who wandered amid +the shadows of Province House, never showing her face, unloved, avoided, +lonely. + + + + + HOWE'S MASQUERADE + +During the siege of Boston Sir William Howe undertook to show his +contempt for the raw fellows who were disrespectfully tossing cannon- +balls at him from the batteries in Cambridge and South Boston, by giving +a masquerade. It was a brilliant affair, the belles and blades of the +loyalist set being present, some in the garb of their ancestors, for the +past is ever more picturesque than the present, and a few roisterers +caricaturing the American generals in ragged clothes, false noses, and +absurd wigs. At the height of the merriment a sound of a dirge echoing +through the streets caused the dance to stop. The funeral music paused +before the doors of Province House, where the dance was going on, and +they were flung open. Muffled drums marked time for a company that +began to file down the great stair from the floor above the ball-room: +dark men in steeple-hats and pointed beards, with Bibles, swords, and +scrolls, who looked sternly at the guests and descended to the street. + +Colonel Joliffe, a Whig, whose age and infirmity had prevented him from +joining Washington, and whose courtesy and intelligence had made him +respected by his foes, acted as chorus: "These I take to be the Puritan +governors of Massachusetts: Endicott, Winthrop, Vane, Dudley, Haynes, +Bellingham, Leverett, Bradstreet." Then came a rude soldier, mailed, +begirt with arms: the tyrant Andros; a brown-faced man with a sailor's +gait: Sir William Phipps; a courtier wigged and jewelled: Earl +Bellomont; the crafty, well-mannered Dudley; the twinkling, red-nosed +Shute; the ponderous Burnet; the gouty Belcher; Shirley, Pownall, +Bernard, Hutchinson; then a soldier, whose cocked hat he held before his +face. "'Tis the shape of Gage!" cried an officer, turning pale. The +lights were dull and an uncomfortable silence had fallen on the company. +Last, came a tall man muffled in a military cloak, and as he paused on +the landing the guests looked from him to their host in amazement, for +it was the figure of Howe himself. The governor's patience was at an +end, for this was a part of the masquerade that had not been looked for. +He fiercely cried to Joliffe, "There is a plot in this. Your head has +stood too long on a traitor's shoulders." + +"Make haste to cut it off, then," was the reply, "for the power of Sir +William Howe and of the king, his master, is at an end. These shadows +are mourners at his funeral. Look! The last of the governors." + +Howe rushed with drawn sword on the figure of himself, when it turned +and looked at him. The blade clanged to the floor and Howe fell back +with a gasp of horror, for the face was his own. Hand nor voice was +raised to stay the double-goer as it mournfully passed on. At the +threshold it stamped its foot and shook its fists in air; then the door +closed. Mingled with the strains of the funeral march, as it died along +the empty streets, came the tolling of the bell on South Church steeple, +striking the hour of midnight. The festivities were at an end and, +oppressed by a nameless fear, the spectators of this strange pageant +made ready for departure; but before they left the booming of cannon at +the southward announced that Washington had advanced. The glories of +Province House were over. When the last of the royal governors left it +he paused on the threshold, beat his foot on the stone, and flung up his +hands in an attitude of grief and rage. + + + + + OLD ESTHER DUDLEY + +Boston had surrendered. Washington was advancing from the heights where +he had trained his guns on the British works, and Sir William Howe +lingered at the door of Province House,--last of the royal governors who +would stand there,--and cursed and waved his hands and beat his heel on +the step, as if he were crushing rebellion by that act. The sound +brought an old woman to his side. "Esther Dudley!" he exclaimed. "Why +are you not gone?" + +"I shall never leave. As housekeeper for the governors and pensioner of +the king, this has been my home; the only home I know. Go back, but +send more troops. I will keep the house till you return." + +"Grant that I may return," he cried. "Since you will stay, take this +bag of guineas and keep this key until a governor shall demand it." + +Then, with fierce and moody brow, the governor went forth, and the faded +eyes of Esther Dudley saw him nevermore. When the soldiers of the +republic cast about for quarters in Boston town, they spared the +official mansion to this old woman. Her bridling toryism and assumption +of old state amused them and did no harm; indeed, her loyalty was half +admired; beside, nobody took the pride in the place that she did, or +would keep it in better order. That she sometimes had a half-dozen of +unrepentant codgers in to dinner, and that they were suspected of +drinking healths to George III. in crusted port, was a fact to blink. +Rumor had it that not all her guests were flesh and blood, but that she +had an antique mirror across which ancient occupants of the house would +pass in shadowy procession at her command, and that she was wont to have +the Shirleys, Olivers, Hutchinsons, and Dudleys out of their graves to +hold receptions there; so a touch of dread may have mingled in the +feeling that kept the populace aloof. + +Living thus by herself, refusing to hear of rebel victories, construing +the bonfires, drumming, hurrahs, and bell-ringing to signify fresh +triumphs for England, she drifted farther and farther out of her time +and existed in the shadows of the past. She lighted the windows for the +king's birthday, and often from the cupola watched for a British fleet, +heeding not the people below, who, as they saw her withered face, +repeated the prophecy, with a laugh "When the golden Indian on Province +House shall shoot his arrow and the cock on South Church spire shall +crow, look for a royal governor again." So, when it was bandied about +the streets that the governor was coming, she took it in no wise +strange, but dressed herself in silk and hoops, with store of ancient +jewels, and made ready to receive him. In truth, there was a function, +for already a man of stately mien, and richly dressed, was advancing +through the court, with a staff of men in wigs and laced coats behind +him, and a company of troops at a little distance. Esther Dudley flung +the door wide and dropping on her knees held forth the key with the cry, +"Thank heaven for this hour! God save the king!" + +The governor put off his hat and helped the woman to her feet. +"A strange prayer," said he; "yet we will echo it to this effect: For +the good of the realm that still owns him to be its ruler, God save King +George." + +Esther Dudley stared wildly. That face she remembered now,--the +proscribed rebel, John Hancock; governor, not by royal grant, but by the +people's will. + +"Have I welcomed a traitor? Then let me die." + +"Alas! Mistress Dudley, the world has changed for you in these later +years. America has no king." He offered her his arm, and she clung to +it for a moment, then, sinking down, the great key, that she so long had +treasured, clanked to the floor. + +"I have been faithful unto death," she gasped. "God save the king!" + +The people uncovered, for she was dead. + +"At her tomb," said Hancock, "we will bid farewell forever to the past. +A new day has come for us. In its broad light we will press onward." + + + + + THE LOSS OF JACOB HURD + +Jacob Hurd, stern witch-harrier of Ipswich, can abide nothing out of the +ordinary course of things, whether it be flight on a broomstick or the +wrong adding of figures; so his son gives him trouble, for he is an +imaginative boy, who walks alone, talking to the birds, making rhymes, +picking flowers, and dreaming. That he will never be a farmer, +mechanic, or tradesman is as good as certain, and one day when the child +runs in with a story of a golden horse, with tail and mane of silver, on +which he has ridden over land and sea, climbing mountains and swimming +rivers, he turns pale with fright lest the boy be bewitched; then, as +the awfulness of the invention becomes manifest, he cries, "Thou knowest +thou art lying," and strikes the little fellow. + +The boy staggers into his mother's arms, and that night falls into a +fever, in which he raves of his horse and the places he will see, while +Jacob sits by his side, too sore in heart for words, and he never leaves +the cot for food or sleep till the fever is burned out. Just before he +closes his eyes the child looks about him and says that he hears the +horse pawing in the road, and, either for dust or cloud or sun gleam, it +seems for an instant as if the horse were there. The boy gives a cry of +joy, then sinks upon his pillow, lifeless. + +Some time after this Jacob sets off one morning, while the stars are +out, to see three witches hanged, but at evening his horse comes flying +up the road, splashed with blood and foam, and the neighbors know from +that of Jacob's death, for he is lying by the wayside with an Indian +arrow in his heart and an axemark on his head. The wife runs to the +door, and, though she shakes with fear at its approach, she sees that in +the sunset glow the horse's sides have a shine like gold, and its mane +and tail are silver white. Now the animal is before the house, but the +woman does not faint or cry at the blood splash on the saddle, for--is +it the dust-cloud that takes that shape?--she sees on its back a boy +with a shining face, who throws a kiss at her,--her Paul. He, little +poet, lives in spirit, and has found happiness. + + + + + THE HOBOMAK + +Such was the Indian name of the site of Westboro, Massachusetts, and the +neighboring pond was Hochomocko. The camp of the red men near the shore +was full of bustle one day, for their belle, Iano, was to marry the +young chief, Sassacus. The feast was spread and all were ready to +partake of it, when it was found that the bride was missing. One girl +had seen her steal into the wood with a roguish smile on her lip, and +knew that she intended to play hide-and-seek with Sassacus before she +should be proclaimed a wife, but the day wore on and she did not come. +Among those who were late in reaching camp was Wequoash, who brought a +panther in that he had slain on Boston Hill, and he bragged about his +skill, as usual. There had been a time when he was a rival of the +chief for the hand of Iano, and he showed surprise and concern at her +continued absence. The search went on for two days, and, at the end of +that time, the girl's body was taken from the lake. + +At the funeral none groaned so piteously as Wequoash. Yet Sassacus felt +his loss so keenly that he fell into a sickness next day, and none was +found so constant in his ministrations as Wequoash; but all to no avail, +for within a week Sassacus, too, was dead. As the strongest and bravest +remaining in the tribe, Wequoash became heir to his honors by election. + +A year later he sat moodily by the lakeside, when a flame burst up from +the water, and a canoe floated toward him that a mysterious agency +impelled him to enter. The boat sped toward the flame, that, at his +approach, assumed Iano's form. He heard the water gurgle as he passed +over the spot where the shape had glimmered, but there was no other +sound or check. Next year this thing occurred again, and then the +spirit spoke: "Only once more." + +Yet a third time his fate took him to the spot, and as the hour came on +he called his people to him: "This," said he, "is my death-day. I have +done evil, and the time comes none too soon. Sassacus was your chief. +I envied him his happiness, and gave him poison when I nursed him. +Worse than that, I saw Iano in her canoe on her wedding-day. She had +refused my hand. I entered my canoe and chased her over the water, in +pretended sport, but in the middle of the lake I upset her birch and she +was drowned. See! she comes!" + +For, as he spoke, the light danced up again, and the boat came, self- +impelled, to the strand. Wequoash entered it, and with head bent down +was hurried away. Those on the shore saw the flame condense to a +woman's shape, and a voice issued from it: "It is my hour!" A blinding +bolt of lightning fell, and at the appalling roar of thunder all hid +their faces. When they looked up, boat and flame had vanished. +Whenever, afterward, an Indian rowed across the place where the murderer +had sunk, he dropped a stone, and the monument that grew in that way can +be seen on the pond floor to this day. + + + + + BERKSHIRE TORIES + +The tories of Berkshire, Massachusetts, were men who had been endeared +to the king by holding office under warrant from that sacred personage. +They have been gently dealt with by historians, but that is +"overstrained magnanimity which concentrates its charities and praises +for defeated champions of the wrong, and reserves its censures for +triumphant defenders of the right." While the following incidents have +been so well avouched that they deserve to stand as history, their +picturesqueness justifies renewed acquaintance. + +Among the loyalists was Gideon Smith, of Stockbridge, who had helped +British prisoners to escape, and had otherwise made himself so obnoxious +that he was forced for a time to withdraw and pass a season of penitence +and meditation in a cavern near Lenox, that is called the Tories' Glen. +Here he lay for weeks, none but his wife knowing where he was, but at +his request she walked out every day with her children, leading them +past his cave, where he fed on their faces with hungry eyes. They +prattled on, never dreaming that their father was but a few feet from +them. Smith survived the war and lived to be on good terms with his old +foes. + +In Lenox lived a Tory, one of those respectable buffers to whom wealth +and family had given immunity in the early years of the war, but who +sorely tried the temper of his neighbors by damning everything American +from Washington downward. At last they could endure his abuse no +longer; his example had affected other Anglomaniacs, and a committee +waited on him to tell him that he could either swear allegiance to the +colonies or be hanged. He said he would be hanged if he would swear, or +words to that effect, and hanged he was, on a ready-made gallows in the +street. He was let down shortly, "brought around" with rum, and the +oath was offered again. He refused it. This had not been looked for. +It had been taken for granted that he would abjure his fealty to the +king at the first tightening of the cord. A conference was held, and it +was declared that retreat would be undignified and unsafe, so the Tory +was swung up again, this time with a yank that seemed to "mean +business." He hung for some time, and when lowered gave no sign of +life. There was some show of alarm at this, for nobody wanted to kill +the old fellow, and every effort was made to restore consciousness. At +last the lungs heaved, the purple faded from his cheek, his eyes opened, +and he gasped, "I'll swear." With a shout of joy the company hurried +him to the tavern, seated him before the fire, and put a glass of punch +in his hand. He drank the punch to Washington's health, and after a +time was heard to remark to himself, "It's a hard way to make Whigs, but +it'll do it." + +Nathan Jackson, of Tyringham, was another Yankee who had seen fit to +take arms against his countrymen, and when captured he was charged with +treason and remanded for trial. The jail, in Great Barrington, was so +little used in those days of sturdy virtue that it had become a mere +shed, fit to hold nobody, and Jackson, after being locked into it, might +have walked out whenever he felt disposed; but escape, he thought, would +have been a confession of the wrongness of Tory principles, or of a fear +to stand trial. He found life so monotonous, however, that he asked the +sheriff to let him go out to work during the day, promising to sleep in +his cell, and such was his reputation for honesty that his request was +granted without a demur, the prisoner returning every night to be locked +up. When the time approached for the court to meet in Springfield heavy +harvesting had begun, and, as there was no other case from Berkshire +County to present, the sheriff grumbled at the bother of taking his +prisoner across fifty miles of rough country, but Jackson said that he +would make it all right by going alone. The sheriff was glad to be +released from this duty, so off went the Tory to give himself up and be +tried for his life. On the way he was overtaken by Mr. Edwards, of the +Executive Council, then about to meet in Boston, and without telling his +own name or office, he learned the extraordinary errand of this lonely +pedestrian. Jackson was tried, admitted the charges against him, and +was sentenced to death. While he awaited execution of the law upon him, +the council in Boston received petitions for clemency, and Mr. Edwards +asked if there was none in favor of Nathan Jackson. There was none. +Mr. Edwards related the circumstance of his meeting with the condemned +man, and a murmur of surprise and admiration went around the room. A +despatch was sent to Springfield. When it reached there the prison door +was flung open and Jackson walked forth free. + + + + + THE REVENGE OF JOSIAH BREEZE + +Two thousand Cape Cod fishermen had gone to join the colonial army, and +in their absence the British ships had run in shore to land crews on +mischievous errands. No man, woman, or child on the Cape but hated the +troops and sailors of King George, and would do anything to work them +harm. When the Somerset was wrecked off Truro, in 1778, the crew were +helped ashore, 'tis true, but they were straightway marched to prison, +and it was thought that no other frigate would venture near the shifting +dunes where she had laid her skeleton, as many a good ship had done +before and has done since. It was November, and ugly weather was +shutting in, when a three-decker, that had been tacking off shore and +that flew the red flag, was seen to yaw wildly while reefing sail and +drift toward land with a broken tiller. No warning signal was raised on +the bluffs; not a hand was stirred to rescue. Those who saw the +accident watched with sullen satisfaction the on-coming of the vessel, +nor did they cease to look for disaster when the ship anchored and +stowed sail. + +Ezekiel and Josiah Breeze, father and son, stood at the door of their +cottage and watched her peril until three lights twinkling faintly +through the gray of driving snow were all that showed where the enemy +lay, straining at her cables and tossing on a wrathful sea. They stood +long in silence, but at last the boy exclaimed, "I'm going to the ship." + +"If you stir from here, you're no son of mine," said Ezekiel. + +"But she's in danger, dad." + +"As she oughter be. By mornin' she'll be strewed along the shore and +not a spar to mark where she's a-swingin' now." + +"And the men?" + +"It's a jedgment, boy." + +The lad remembered how the sailors of the Ajax had come ashore to burn +the homes of peaceful fishermen and farmers; how women had been +insulted; how his friends and mates had been cut down at Long Island +with British lead and steel; how, when he ran to warn away a red-faced +fellow that was robbing his garden, the man had struck him on the +shoulder with a cutlass. He had sworn then to be revenged. But to let +a host go down to death and never lift a helping hand--was that a fair +revenge? "I've got to go, dad," he burst forth. "Tomorrow morning +there'll be five hundred faces turned up on the beach, covered with ice +and staring at the sky, and five hundred mothers in England will wonder +when they're goin' to see those faces again. If ever they looked at me +the sight of 'em would never go out of my eyes. I'd be harnted by 'em, +awake and asleep. And to-morrow is Thanksgiving. I've got to go, dad, +and I will." So speaking, he rushed away and was swallowed in the +gloom. + +The man stared after him; then, with a revulsion of feeling, he cried, +"You're right, 'Siah. I'll go with you." But had he called in tones of +thunder he would not have been heard in the roar of the wind and crash +of the surf. As he reached the shore he saw faintly on the +phosphorescent foam a something that climbed a hill of water; it was +lost over its crest and reappeared on the wave beyond; it showed for a +moment on the third wave, then it vanished in the night. "Josiah!" It +was a long, querulous cry. No answer. In half an hour a thing rode by +the watcher on the sands and fell with a crash beside him--a boat bottom +up: his son's. + +Next day broke clear, with new snow on the ground. In his house at +Provincetown, Captain Breeze was astir betimes, for his son Ezekiel, his +grandson Josiah, and all other relatives who were not at the front with +Washington were coming for the family reunion. Plump turkeys were ready +for the roasting, great loaves of bread and cake stood beside the oven, +redoubtable pies of pumpkin and apple filled the air with maddening +odors. The people gathered and chattered around his cheery fire of the +damage that the storm had done, when Ezekiel stumbled in, his brown face +haggard, his lips working, and a tremor in his hands. He said, +"Josiah!" in a thick voice, then leaned his arms against the chimney and +pressed his face upon them. Among fishermen whose lives are in daily +peril the understanding of misfortune is quick, and the old man put +his hand on the shoulder of his son and bent his head. The day of joy +was become a day of gloom. As the news went out, the house began to +fill with sympathizing friends, and there was talking in low voices +through the rooms, when a cry of surprise was heard outside. A ship, +cased in tons of ice, was forging up the harbor, her decks swarming with +blue jackets, some of whom were beating off the frozen masses from lower +spars and rigging. She followed the channel so steadily, it was plain +to be seen that a wise hand was at her helm; her anchor ran out and she +swung on the tide. "The Ajax, as I'm a sinner!" exclaimed a sailor on +shore. A boat put off from her, and people angrily collected at the +wharf, with talk of getting out their guns, when a boyish figure arose +in the stern, and was greeted with a shout of surprise and welcome. + +The boat touched the beach, Josiah Breeze leaped out of it, and in +another minute his father had him in a bear's embrace, making no attempt +to stop the tears that welled out of his eyes. An officer had followed +Josiah on shore, and going to the group he said, "That boy is one to be +proud of. He put out in a sea that few men could face, to save an +enemy's ship and pilot it into the harbor. I could do no less than +bring him back." There was praise and laughter and clasping of hands, +and when the Thanksgiving dinner was placed, smoking, on the board, the +commander of H. M. S. Ajax was among the jolliest of the guests at +Captain Breeze's table. + + + + THE MAY-POLE OF MERRYMOUNT + +The people of Merrymount--unsanctified in the eyes of their Puritan +neighbors, for were they not Episcopals, who had pancakes at Shrovetide +and wassail at Christmas?--were dancing about their May-pole one summer +evening, for they tried to make it May throughout the year. Some were +masked like animals, and all were tricked with flowers and ribbons. +Within their circle, sharing in song and jest, were the lord and lady of +the revels, and an English clergyman waiting to join the pair in +wedlock. Life, they sang, should be all jollity: away with care and +duty; leave wisdom to the weak and old, and sanctity for fools. +Watching the sport from a neighboring wood stood a band of frowning +Puritans, and as the sun set they stalked forth and broke through the +circle. All was dismay. The bells, the laughter, the song were silent, +and some who had tasted Puritan wrath before shrewdly smelled the +stocks. A Puritan of iron face--it was Endicott, who had cut the cross +from the flag of England--warning aside the "priest of Baal," proceeded +to hack the pole down with his sword. A few swinging blows, and down it +sank, with its ribbons and flowers. + +"So shall fall the pride of vain people; so shall come to grief the +preachers of false religion," quoth he. "Truss those fellows to the +trees and give them half a dozen of blows apiece as token that we brook +no ungodly conduct and hostility to our liberties. And you, king and +queen of the May, have you no better things to think about than fiddling +and dancing? How if I punish you both?" + +"Had I the power I'd punish you for saying it," answered the swain; +"but, as I have not, I am compelled to ask that the girl go unharmed." + +"Will you have it so, or will you share your lover's punishment?" asked +Endicott. + +"I will take all upon myself," said the woman. + +The face of the governor softened. "Let the young fellow's hair be cut, +in pumpkin-shell fashion," he commanded; "then bring them to me but +gently." + +He was obeyed, and as the couple came before him, hand in hand, he took +a chain of roses from the fallen pole and cast it about their necks. +And so they were married. Love had softened rigor and all were better +for the assertion of a common humanity. But the May-pole of Merrymount +was never set up again. There were no more games and plays and dances, +nor singing of worldly music. The town went to ruin, the merrymakers +were scattered, and the gray sobriety of religion and toil fell on +Pilgrim land again. + + + + + THE DEVIL AND TOM WALKER + +When Charles River was lined with groves and marshes there lived in a +cabin, near Brighton, Massachusetts, an ill-fed rascal named Tom Walker. +There was but one in the commonwealth who was more penurious, and that +was his wife. They squabbled over the spending of a penny and each +grudged food to the other. One day as Tom walked through the pine wood +near his place, by habit watching the ground--for even there a farthing +might be discovered--he prodded his stick into a skull, cloven deep by +an Indian tomahawk. He kicked it, to shake the dirt off, when a gruff +voice spake: "What are you doing in my grounds?" A swarthy fellow, with +the face of a charcoal burner, sat on a stump, and Tom wondered that he +had not seen him as he approached. + +He replied, "Your grounds! They belong to Deacon Peabody." + +"Deacon Peabody be damned!" cried the black fellow; "as I think he will +be, anyhow, if he does not look after his own sins a little sharper and +a little less curiously after his neighbors'. Look, if you want to see +how he is faring," and, pointing to a tree, he called Tom to notice that +the deacon's name was written on the bark and that it was rotten at the +core. To his surprise, Tom found that nearly every tree had the name of +some prominent man cut upon it. + +"Who are you?" he asked. + +"I go by different names in different places," replied the dark one. +"In some countries I am the black miner; in some the wild huntsman; here +I am the black woodman. I am the patron of slave dealers and master of +Salem witches." + +"I think you are the devil," blurted Tom. + +"At your service," replied his majesty. + +Now, Tom, having lived long with Mrs. Walker, had no fear of the devil, +and he stopped to have a talk with him. The devil remarked, in a +careless tone, that Captain Kidd had buried his treasure in that wood, +under his majesty's charge, and that whoever wished could find and keep +it by making the usual concession. This Tom declined. He told his wife +about it, however, and she was angry with him for not having closed the +bargain at once, declaring that if he had not courage enough to add this +treasure to their possessions she would not hesitate to do it. Tom +showed no disposition to check her. If she got the money he would try +to get a share of it, and if the devil took away his helpmate--well, +there were things that he had made his mind to endure, when he had to. +True enough, the woman started for the wood before sundown, with her +spoons in her apron. When Tom discovered that the spoons were gone he, +too, set off, for he wanted those back, anyway; but he did not overtake +his wife. An apron was found in a tree containing a dried liver and a +withered heart, and near that place the earth had been trampled and +strewn with handfuls of coarse hair that reminded Tom of the man that he +had met in the woods. "Egad!" he muttered, "Old Nick must have had a +tough time with her." Half in gratitude and half in curiosity, Tom +waited to speak to the dark man, and was next day rewarded by seeing +that personage come through the wood with an axe, whistling carelessly. +Tom at once approached him on the subject of the buried treasure--not +the vanished wife, for her he no longer regarded as a treasure. + +After some haggling the devil proposed that Tom should start a loan +office in Boston and use Kidd's money in exacting usury. This suited +Tom, who promised to screw four per cent. a month out of the +unfortunates who might ask his aid, and he was seen to start for town +with a bag which his neighbors thought to hold his crop of starveling +turnips, but which was really a king's ransom in gold and jewels--the +earnings of Captain Kidd in long years of honest piracy. It was in +Governor Belcher's time, and cash was scarce. Merchants and +professional men as well as the thriftless went to Tom for money, +and, as he always had it, his business grew until he seemed to have a +mortgage on half the men in Boston who were rich enough to be in debt. +He even went so far as to move into a new house, to ride in his own +carriage, and to eat enough to keep body and soul together, for he did +not want to give up his soul to the one who would claim it just yet. + +The most singular proof of his thrift--showing that he wanted to save +soul and money both--was shown in his joining the church and becoming a +prayerful Christian. He kept a Bible in his pocket and another on his +desk, resolved to be prepared if a certain gentleman should call. He +buried his old horse feet uppermost, for he was taught that on +resurrection day the world would be turned upside down, and he was +resolved, if his enemy appeared, to give him a run for it. While +employed one afternoon in the congenial task of foreclosing a mortgage +his creditor begged for another day to raise the money. Tom was +irritable on account of the hot weather and talked to him as a good man +of the church ought not to do. + +"You have made so much money out of me," wailed the victim of Tom's +philanthropies. + +"Now, the devil take me if I have made a farthing!" exclaimed Tom. + +At that instant there were three knocks at the door, and, stepping out +to see who was there, the money lender found himself in presence of his +fate. His little Bible was in a coat on a nail, and the bigger one was +on his desk. He was without defence. The evil one caught him up like a +child, had him on the back of his snorting steed in no time, and giving +the beast a cut he flew like the wind in the teeth of a rising storm +toward the marshes of Brighton. As he reached there a lightning flash +descended into the wood and set it on fire. At the same moment Tom's +house was discovered to be in flames. When his effects were examined +nothing was found in his strong boxes but cinders and shavings. + + + + + THE GRAY CHAMPION + +It befell Sir Edmund Andros to make himself the most hated of the +governors sent to represent the king in New England. A spirit of +independence, born of a free soil, was already moving in the people's +hearts, and the harsh edicts of this officer, as well as the oppressive +measures of his master, brought him into continual conflict with the +people. He it was who went to Hartford to demand the surrender of the +liberties of that colony. The lights were blown out and the patent of +those liberties was hurried away from under his nose and hidden from his +reach in a hollow of the Charter Oak. + +In Boston, too, he could call no American his friend, and it was there +that he met one of the first checks to his arrogance. It was an April +evening in 1689, and there was an unusual stir in the streets. People +were talking in low tones, and one caught such phrases as, "If the +Prince of Orange is successful, this Andros will lose his head." "Our +pastors are to be burned alive in King Street." "The pope has ordered +Andros to celebrate the eve of St. Bartholomew in Boston: we are to be +killed." "Our old Governor Bradstreet is in town, and Andros fears +him." While talk was running in this excited strain the sound of a drum +was heard coming through Cornhill. Now was seen a file of soldiers with +guns on shoulder, matches twinkling in the falling twilight, and behind +them, on horseback, Andros and his councillors, including the priest of +King's Chapel, all wearing crucifixes at their throats, all flushed with +wine, all looking down with indifference at the people in their dark +cloaks and broadbrimmed hats, who looked back at them with suspicion and +hate. The soldiers trod the streets like men unused to giving way, and +the crowd fell back, pressed against the buildings. Groans and hisses +were heard, and a voice sent up this cry, "Lord of Hosts, provide a +champion for thy people!" + +Ere the echo of that call had ceased there came from the other end of +the street, stepping as in time to the drum, an aged man, in cloak and +steeple hat, with heavy sword at his thigh. His port was that of a +king, and his dignity was heightened by a snowy beard that fell to his +waist. Taking the middle of the way he marched on until he was but a +few paces from the advancing column. None knew him and he seemed to +recognize none among the crowd. As he drew himself to his height, it +seemed in the dusk as if he were of no mortal mould. His eye blazed, he +thrust his staff before him, and in a voice of invincible command cried, +"Halt!" + +Half because it was habit to obey the word, half because they were cowed +by the majestic presence, the guard stood still and the drum was +silenced. Andros spurred forward, but even he made a pause when he saw +the staff levelled at his breast. "Forward!" he blustered. "Trample +the dotard into the street. How dare you stop the king's governor?" + +"I have stayed the march of a king himself," was the answer. "The king +you serve no longer sits on the throne of England. To-morrow you will +be a prisoner. Back, lest you reach the scaffold!" + +A moment of hesitation on Andros's part encouraged the people to press +closer, and many of them took no pains to hide the swords and pistols +that were girt upon them. The groans and hisses sounded louder. "Down +with Andros! Death to tyrants! A curse on King James!" came from +among the throng, and some of them stooped as if to tear up the pavings. +Doubtful, yet overawed, the governor wheeled about and gloomily marched +back through the streets where he had ridden so arrogantly. In truth, +his next night was spent in prison, for James had fled from England, and +William held the throne. All eyes being on the retreating company, the +champion of the people was not seen to depart, but when they turned to +praise and thank him he had vanished, and there were those who said that +he had melted into twilight. + +The incident had passed into legend, and fourscore years had followed +it, when the soldiers of another king of England marched down State +Street, and fired on the people of Boston who were gathered below the +old State House. Again it was said that the form of a tall, white- +bearded man in antique garb was seen in that street, warning back the +troops and encouraging the people to resist them. On the little field +of Lexington in early dawn, and at the breastwork on Bunker Hill, where +farmers worked by lantern-light, this dark form was seen--the spirit of +New England. And it is told that whenever any foreign foe or domestic +oppressor shall dare the temper of the people, in the van of the +resisting army shall be found this champion. + + + + + THE FOREST SMITHY + +Early in this century a man named Ainsley appeared at Holyoke, +Massachusetts, and set up a forge in a wood at the edge of the village, +with a two-room cottage to live in. A Yankee peddler once put up at his +place for shelter from a storm, and as the rain increased with every +hour he begged to remain in the house over night, promising to pay for +his accommodation in the morning. The blacksmith, who seemed a mild, +considerate man, said that he was willing, but that, as the rooms were +small, it would be well to refer the matter to his wife. As the peddler +entered the house the wife--a weary-looking woman with white hair-- +seated herself at once in a thickly-cushioned arm-chair, and, as if +loath to leave it, told the peddler that if he would put up with simple +fare and a narrow berth he was welcome. After a candle had been lighted +the three sat together for some time, talking of crops and trade, when +there came a rush of hoofs without and a hard-looking man, who had +dismounted at the door, entered without knocking. The blacksmith turned +pale and the wife's face expressed sore anxiety. + +"What brings you here?" asked the smith. + +"I must pass the night here," answered the man. + +"But, stranger, I can't accommodate you. We have but one spare room, +and that has been taken by the man who is sitting there." + +"Then give me a bit to eat." + +"Get the stranger something," said the woman to her husband, without +rising. + +"Are you lame, that you don't get it yourself?" + +The woman paused; then said, "Husband, you are tired. Sit here and I +will wait on the stranger." + +The blacksmith took the seat, when the stranger again blustered, "It +would be courtesy to offer me that chair, tired as I am. Perhaps you +don't know that I am an officer of the law?" + +When supper was ready they took their places, the woman drawing up the +arm-chair for her own use, but, as the custom was, they all knelt to say +grace, and while their faces were buried in their hands the candle was +blown out. The stranger jumped up and began walking around the room. +When a light could be found he had gone and the cushion had disappeared +from the chair. "Oh! After all these years!" wailed the woman, and +falling on her knees she sobbed like a child, while her husband in vain +tried to comfort her. The peddler, who had already gone to bed, but who +had seen a part of this puzzling drama through the open door, knew not +what to do, but, feeling some concern for the safety of his own +possessions, he drew his pack into bed with him, and, being tired, fell +asleep with the sobs of the woman sounding in his ears. + +When he awoke it was broad day and the earth was fresh and bright from +its bath. After dressing he passed into the other room, finding the +table still set, the chair before it without its cushion, the fire out, +and nobody in or about the house. The smithy was deserted, and to his +call there was no response but the chattering of jays in the trees; so, +shouldering his pack, he resumed his journey. He opened his pack at a +farm-house to repair a clock, when he discovered that his watches were +gone, and immediately lodged complaint with the sheriff, but nothing was +ever seen again of Ainsley, his wife, or the rough stranger. Who was +the thief? What was in the cushion? And what brought the stranger to +the house? + + + + + WAHCONAH FALLS + +The pleasant valley of Dalton, in the Berkshire Hills, had been under +the rule of Miacomo for forty years when a Mohawk dignitary of fifty +scalps and fifty winters came a-wooing his daughter Wahconah. On a June +day in 1637, as the girl sat beside the cascade that bears her name, +twining flowers in her hair and watching leaves float down the stream, +she became conscious of a pair of eyes bent on her from a neighboring +coppice, and arose in some alarm. Finding himself discovered, the owner +of the eyes, a handsome young fellow, stepped forward with a quieting +air of friendliness, and exclaimed, "Hail, Bright Star!" + +"Hail, brother," answered Wahconah. + +"I am Nessacus," said the man, "one of King Philip's soldiers. Nessacus +is tired with his flight from the Long Knives (the English), and his +people faint. Will Bright Star's people shut their lodges against him +and his friends?" + +The maiden answered, "My father is absent, in council with the Mohawks, +but his wigwams are always open. Follow." + +Nessacus gave a signal, and forth from the wood came a sad-eyed, battle- +worn troop that mustered about him. Under the girl's lead they went +down to the valley and were hospitably housed. Five days later Miacomo +returned, with him the elderly Mohawk lover, and a priest, Tashmu, of +repute a cringing schemer, with whom hunters and soldiers could have +nothing in common, and whom they would gladly have put out of the way +had they not been deterred by superstitious fears. The strangers were +welcomed, though Tashmu looked at them gloomily, and there were games in +their honor, Nessacus usually proving the winner, to Wahconah's joy, for +she and the young warrior had fallen in love at first sight, and it was +not long before he asked her father for her hand. Miacomo favored the +suit, but the priest advised him, for politic reasons, to give the girl +to the old Mohawk, and thereby cement a tribal friendship that in those +days of English aggression might be needful. The Mohawk had three wives +already, but he was determined to add Wahconah to his collection, and he +did his best, with threats and flattery, to enforce his suit. Nessacus +offered to decide the matter in a duel with his rival, and the challenge +was accepted, but the wily Tashmu discovered in voices of wind and +thunder, flight of birds and shape of clouds, such omens that the scared +Indians unanimously forbade a resort to arms. "Let the Great Spirit +speak," cried Tashmu, and all yielded their consent. + +Invoking a ban on any who should follow, Tashmu proclaimed that he would +pass that night in Wizard's Glen, where, by invocations, he would learn +the divine will. At sunset he stalked forth, but he had not gone far +ere the Mohawk joined him, and the twain proceeded to Wahconah Falls. +There was no time for magical hocus-pocus that night, for both of them +toiled sorely in deepening a portion of the stream bed, so that the +current ran more swiftly and freely on that side, and in the morning +Tashmu announced in what way the Great Spirit would show his choice. +Assembling the tribe on the river-bank, below a rock that midway split +the current, a canoe, with symbols painted on it, was set afloat near +the falls. If it passed the dividing rock on the side where Nessacus +waited, he should have Wahconah. If it swerved to the opposite shore, +where the Mohawk and his counsellor stood, the Great Spirit had chosen +the old chief for her husband. Of course, the Mohawk stood on the +deeper side. On came the little boat, keeping the centre of the stream. +It struck the rock, and all looked eagerly, though Tashmu and the Mohawk +could hardly suppress an exultant smile. A little wave struck the +canoe: it pivoted against the rock and drifted to the feet of Nessacus. +A look of blank amazement came over the faces of the defeated wooer and +his friend, while a shout of gladness went up, that the Great Spirit had +decided so well. The young couple were wed with rejoicings; the Mohawk +trudged homeward, and, to the general satisfaction, Tashmu disappeared +with him. Later, when Tashmu was identified as the one who had guided +Major Talcott's soldiers to the valley, the priest was caught and slain +by Miacomo's men. + + + + + KNOCKING AT THE TOMB + +Knock, knock, knock! The bell has just gone twelve, and there is the +clang again upon the iron door of the tomb. The few people of Lanesboro +who are paying the penance of misdeeds or late suppers, by lying awake +at that dread hour, gather their blankets around their shoulders and +mutter a word of prayer for deliverance against unwholesome visitors of +the night. Why is the old Berkshire town so troubled? Who is it that +lies buried in that tomb, with its ornament of Masonic symbols? Why was +the heavy iron knocker placed on the door? The question is asked, but +no one will answer it, nor will any say who the woman is that so often +visits the cemetery at the stroke of midnight and sounds the call into +the chamber of the dead. Starlight, moonlight, or storm--it makes no +difference to the woman. There she goes, in her black cloak, seen dim +in the night, except where there are snow and moon together, and there +she waits, her hand on the knocker, for the bell to strike to set up her +clangor. Some say that she is crazy, and it is her freak to do this +thing. Is she calling on the corpses to rise and have a dance among the +graves? or has she been asked to call the occupant of that house at a +given hour? Perhaps, weary of life, she is asking for admittance to the +rest and silence of the tomb. She has long been beneath the sod, this +troubler of dreams. Who knows her secret? + + + + + THE WHITE DEER OF ONOTA + +Beside quiet Onota, in the Berkshire Hills, dwelt a band of Indians, and +while they lived here a white deer often came to drink. So rare was the +appearance of an animal like this that its visits were held as good +omens, and no hunter of the tribe ever tried to slay it. A prophet of +the race had said, "So long as the white doe drinks at Onota, famine +shall not blight the Indian's harvest, nor pestilence come nigh his +lodge, nor foeman lay waste his country." And this prophecy held true. +That summer when the deer came with a fawn as white and graceful as +herself, it was a year of great abundance. On the outbreak of the +French and Indian War a young officer named Montalbert was despatched to +the Berkshire country to persuade the Housatonic Indians to declare +hostility to the English, and it was as a guest in the village of Onota +that he heard of the white deer. Sundry adventurers had made valuable +friendships by returning to the French capital with riches and +curiosities from the New World. Even Indians had been abducted as gifts +for royalty, and this young ambassador resolved that when he returned to +his own country the skin of the white deer should be one of the trophies +that would win him a smile from Louis. + +He offered a price for it--a price that would have bought all their +possessions and miles of the country roundabout, but their deer was +sacred, and their refusal to sacrifice it was couched in such indignant +terms that he wisely said no more about it in the general hearing. +There was in the village a drunken fellow, named Wondo, who had come to +that pass when he would almost have sold his soul for liquor, and him +the officer led away and plied with rum until he promised to bring the +white doe to him. The pretty beast was so familiar with men that she +suffered Wondo to catch her and lead her to Montalbert. Making sure +that none was near, the officer plunged his sword into her side and the +innocent creature fell. The snowy skin, now splashed with red, was +quickly stripped off, concealed among the effects in Montalbert's +outfit, and he set out for Canada; but he had not been many days on his +road before Wondo, in an access of misery and repentance, confessed to +his share of the crime that had been done and was slain on the moment. + +With the death of the deer came an end to good fortune. Wars, blights, +emigration followed, and in a few years not a wigwam was left standing +beside Onota. + +There is a pendant to this legend, incident to the survival of the +deer's white fawn. An English hunter, visiting the lake with dog and +gun, was surprised to see on its southern bank a white doe. The animal +bent to drink and at the same moment the hunter put his gun to his +shoulder. Suddenly a howl was heard, so loud, so long, that the woods +echoed it, and the deer, taking alarm, fled like the wind. The howl +came from the dog, and, as that animal usually showed sagacity in the +presence of game, the hunter was seized with a fear that its form was +occupied, for the time, by a hag who lived alone in the "north woods," +and who was reputed to have appeared in many shapes--for this was not so +long after witch times that their influence was forgotten. + +Drawing his ramrod, the man gave his dog such a beating that the poor +creature had something worth howling for, because it might be the witch +that he was thrashing. Then running to the shanty of the suspected +woman he flung open her door and demanded to see her back, for, if she +had really changed her shape, every blow that he had given to the dog +would have been scored on her skin. When he had made his meaning clear, +the crone laid hold on the implement that served her for horse at night, +and with the wooden end of it rained blows on him so rapidly that, if +the dog had had half the meanness in his nature that some people have, +the spectacle would have warmed his heart, for it was a prompt and +severe revenge for his sufferings. And to the last the hunter could not +decide whether the beating that he received was prompted by indignation +or vengeance. + + + + + WIZARD'S GLEN + +Four miles from Pittsfield, Massachusetts, among the Berkshire Hills, is +a wild valley, noted for its echoes, that for a century and more has +been called Wizard's Glen. Here the Indian priests performed their +incantations, and on the red-stained Devil's Altar, it was said, they +offered human sacrifice to Hobomocko and his demons of the wood. In +Berkshire's early days a hunter, John Chamberlain, of Dalton, who had +killed a deer and was carrying it home on his shoulders, was overtaken +on the hills by a storm and took shelter from it in a cavernous recess +in Wizard's Glen. In spite of his fatigue he was unable to sleep, and +while lying on the earth with open eyes he was amazed to see the wood +bend apart before him, disclosing a long aisle that was mysteriously +lighted and that contained hundreds of capering forms. As his eyes grew +accustomed to the faint light he made out tails and cloven feet on the +dancing figures; and one tall form with wings, around whose head a +wreath of lightning glittered, and who received the deference of the +rest, he surmised to be the devil himself. It was such a night and such +a place as Satan and his imps commonly chose for high festivals. + +As he lay watching them through the sheeted rain a tall and painted +Indian leaped on Devil's Altar, fresh scalps dangling round his body in +festoons, and his eyes blazing with fierce command. In a brief +incantation he summoned the shadow hordes around him. They came, with +torches that burned blue, and went around and around the rock singing a +harsh chant, until, at a sign, an Indian girl was dragged in and flung +on the block of sacrifice. The figures rushed toward her with extended +arms and weapons, and the terrified girl gave one cry that rang in the +hunter's ears all his life after. The wizard raised his axe: the devils +and vampires gathered to drink the blood and clutch the escaping soul, +when in a lightning flash the girl's despairing glance fell on the face +of Chamberlain. That look touched his manhood, and drawing forth his +Bible he held it toward the rabble while he cried aloud the name of God. +There was a crash of thunder. The light faded, the demons vanished, the +storm swept past, and peace settled on the hills. + + + + + BALANCED ROCK + +Balanced Rock, or Rolling Rock, near Pittsfield, Massachusetts, is a +mass of limestone that was deposited where it stands by the great +continental glacier during the ice age, and it weighs four hundred and +eighty tons (estimated) in spite of its centuries of weathering. Here +one of the Atotarhos, kings of the Six Nations, had his camp. He was a +fierce man, who ate and drank from bowls made of the skulls of enemies, +and who, when he received messages and petitions, wreathed himself from +head to foot with poison snakes. The son of this ferocious being +inherited none of his war-like tendencies; indeed, the lad was almost +feminine in appearance, and on succeeding to power he applied himself to +the cultivation of peaceful arts. Later historians have uttered a +suspicion that he was a natural son of Count Frontenac, but that does +not suit with this legend. + +The young Atotarho stood near Balanced Rock watching a number of big +boys play duff. In this game one stone is placed upon another and the +players, standing as far from it as they fancy they can throw, attempt +to knock it out of place with other stones. The silence of Atotarho and +his slender, girlish look called forth rude remarks from the boys, who +did not know him, and who dared him to test his skill. The young chief +came forward, and as he did so the jeers and laughter changed to cries +of astonishment and fear, for at each step he grew in size until he +towered above them, a giant. Then they knew him, and fell down in +dread, but he took no revenge. Catching up great bowlders he tossed +them around as easily as if they had been beechnuts, and at last, +lifting the balanced rock, he placed it lightly where it stands to-day, +gave them a caution against ill manners and hasty judgments, and resumed +his slender form. For many years after, the old men of the tribe +repeated this story and its lesson from the top of Atotarho's duff. + + + + + SHONKEEK-MOONKEEK + +This is the Mohegan name of the pretty lake in the Berkshires now called +Pontoosuc. Shonkeek was a boy, Moonkeek a girl, and they were cousins +who grew up as children commonly do, whether in house or wigwam: they +roamed the woods and hills together, filled their baskets with flowers +and berries, and fell in love. But the marriage of cousins was +forbidden in the Mohegan polity, and when they reached an age in which +they found companionship most delightful their rambles were interdicted +and they were even told to avoid each other. This had the usual effect, +and they met on islands in the lake at frequent intervals, to the +torment of one Nockawando, who wished to wed the girl himself, and +who reported her conduct to her parents. + +The lovers agreed, after this, to fly to an Eastern tribe into which +they would ask to be adopted, but they were pledged, if aught interfered +with their escape, to meet beneath the lake. Nockawando interfered. On +the next night, as the unsuspecting Shonkeek was paddling over to the +island where the maid awaited him, the jealous rival, rowing softly in +his wake, sent an arrow into his back, and Shonkeek, without a cry, +pitched headlong into the water. Yet, to the eyes of Nockawando, he +appeared to keep his seat and urge his canoe forward. The girl saw the +boat approach: it sped, now, like an eagle's flight. One look, as it +passed the rock; one glance at the murderer, crouching in his birchen +vessel, and with her lover's name on her lips she leaped into her own +canoe and pushed out from shore. Nockawando heard her raise the death- +song and rowed forward as rapidly as he could, but near the middle of +the lake his arm fell palsied. + +The song had ended and the night had become strangely, horribly still. +Not a chirp of cricket, not a lap of wave, not a rustle of leaf. +Motionless the girl awaited, for his boat was still moving by the +impetus of his last stroke of the paddle. The evening star was shining +low on the horizon, and as her figure loomed in the darkness the star +shone through at the point where her eye had looked forth. It was no +human creature that sat there. Then came the dead man's boat. The two +shadows rowed noiselessly together, and as they disappeared in the mist +that was now settling on the landscape, an unearthly laugh rang over the +lake; then all was still. When Nockawando reached the camp that night +he was a raving maniac. The Indians never found the bodies of the pair, +but they believed that while water remains in Pontoosuc its surface will +be vexed by these journeys of the dead. + + + + + THE SALEM ALCHEMIST + +In 1720 there lived in a turreted house at North and Essex Streets, in +Salem, a silent, dark-visaged man,--a reputed chemist. He gathered +simples in the fields, and parcels and bottles came and went between him +and learned doctors in Boston; but report went around that it was not +drugs alone that he worked with, nor medicines for passing ailments that +he distilled. The watchman, drowsily pacing the streets in the small +hours, saw his shadow move athwart the furnace glare in his tower, and +other shadows seemed at the moment to flit about it--shadows that could +be thrown by no tangible form, yet that had a grotesque likeness to the +human kind. A clink of hammers and a hiss of steam were sometimes +heard, and his neighbors devoutly hoped that if he secured the secret of +the philosopher's stone or the universal solvent, it would be honestly +come by. + +But it was neither gold nor the perilous strong water that he wanted. +It was life: the elixir that would dispel the chill and decrepitude of +age, that would bring back the youthful sparkle to the eye and set the +pulses bounding. He explored the surrounding wilderness day after day; +the juices of its trees and plants he compounded, night after night, +long without avail. Not until after a thousand failures did he conceive +that he had secured the ingredients but they were many, they were +perishable, they must be distilled within five days, for fermentation +and decay would set in if he delayed longer. Gathering the herbs and +piling his floor with fuel, he began his work, alone; the furnace +glowed, the retorts bubbled, and through their long throats trickled +drops--golden, ruddy, brown, and crystal--that would be combined into +that precious draught. + +And none too soon, for under the strain of anxiety he seemed to be aging +fast. He took no sleep, except while sitting upright in his chair, for, +should he yield entirely to nature's appeal, his fire would die and his +work be spoiled. With heavy eyes and aching head he watched his furnace +and listened to the constant drip, drip of the precious liquor. It was +the fourth day. He had knelt to stir his fire to more active burning. +Its brightness made him blink, its warmth was grateful, and he reclined +before it, with elbow on the floor and head resting on his hand. How +cheerily the logs hummed and crackled, yet how drowsily--how slow the +hours were--how dull the watch! Lower, lower sank the head, and heavier +grew the eyes. At last he lay full length on the floor, and the long +sleep of exhaustion had begun. + +He was awakened by the sound of a bell. "The church bell!" he cried, +starting up. "And people going through the streets to meeting. How is +this? The sun is in the east! My God! I have been asleep! The +furnace is cold. The elixir!" He hastily blended the essences that he +had made, though one or two ingredients were still lacking, and drank +them off. "Faugh!" he exclaimed. "Still unfinished-perhaps spoiled. +I must begin again." Taking his hat and coat he uttered a weary sigh +and was about to open the door when his cheek blenched with pain, sight +seemed to leave him, the cry for help that rose to his lips was stifled +in a groan of anguish, a groping gesture brought a shelf of retorts and +bottles to the floor, and he fell writhing among their fragments. The +elixir of life, unfinished, was an elixir of death. + + + + + ELIZA WHARTON + +Under the name of Eliza Wharton for a brief time lived a woman whose +name was said to be Elizabeth Whitman. Little is known of her, and it +is thought that she had gone among strangers to conceal disgrace. She +died without telling her story. In 1788 she arrived at the Bell Tavern, +Danvers, in company with a man, who, after seeing her properly bestowed, +drove away and never returned. A graceful, beautiful, well-bred woman, +with face overcast by a tender melancholy, she kept indoors with her +books, her sewing, and a guitar, avoiding the gossip of the idle. She +said that her husband was absent on a journey, and a letter addressed to +"Mrs. Eliza Wharton" was to be seen on her table when she received +callers. Once a stranger paused at her door and read the name thereon. +As he passed on the woman groaned, "I am undone!" One good woman, +seeing her need of care and defiant of village prattling, took her to +her home, and there, after giving birth to a dead child, she passed +away. Among her effects were letters full of pathetic appeal, and some +verses, closing thus: + + "O thou for whose dear sake I bear + A doom so dreadful, so severe, + May happy fates thy footsteps guide + And o'er thy peaceful home preside. + Nor let Eliza's early tomb + Infect thee with its baleful gloom." + +A stone was raised above her grave, by whom it is not known, and this +inscription was engraved thereon: "This humble stone, in memory of +Elizabeth Whitman, is inscribed by her weeping friends, to whom she +endeared herself by uncommon tenderness and affection. Endowed with +superior genius and acquirements, she was still more endeared by +humility and benevolence. Let candor throw a veil over her frailties, +for great was her charity for others. She sustained the last painful +scene far from every friend, and exhibited an example of calm +resignation. Her departure was on the 25th of July, 1788, in the +thirty-seventh year of her age, and the tears of strangers watered +her grave." + + + + + SALE OF THE SOUTHWICKS + +Bitter were the persecutions endured by Quakers at the hands of the +Puritans. They were flogged if they were restless in church, and +flogged if they did not go to it. Their ears were slit and they were +set in the stocks if they preached, and if any tender-hearted person +gave them bed, bite, or sup, he, too, was liable to punishment. They +were charged with the awful offence of preaching false doctrine, and no +matter how pure their lives might be, the stern Salemite would concede +no good of them while their faith was different from his. They even +suspected Cobbler Keezar of mischief when he declared that his magic +lapstone which Agrippa had torn from the tower at Nettesheim--gave him a +vision of the time when men would be as glad as nature, when the +"snuffler of psalms" would sing for joy, when priests and Quakers would +talk together kindly, when pillory and gallows should be gone. Poor +Keezar! In ecstasy at that prospect he flung up his arms, and his +lapstone rolled into the Merrimack. The tired mill-girls of Lowell +still frequent the spot to seek some dim vision of future comfort. + +In contrast to the tales of habitual tyranny toward the Quakers is the +tradition of the Southwicks. Lawrence and Cassandra, of that name, were +banished from Salem, in spite of their blameless lives, for they had +embraced Quakerism. They died within three days of each other on +Shelter Island, but their son and daughter, Daniel and Provided, +returned to their birthplace, and were incessantly fined for not going +to church. At last, having lost their property through seizures made +to satisfy their fines, the General Court of Boston issued an order for +their sale, as slaves, to any Englishman of Virginia or Barbadoes. +Edward Butter was assigned to sell and take them to their master. The +day arrived and Salem market-place was crowded with a throng of the +curious. Provided Southwick mounted the block and Butter began to call +for bids. While expatiating on the aptness of the girl for field or +houseservice, the master of the Barbadoes ship on which Butter had +engaged passage for himself and his two charges looked into her innocent +face, and roared, in noble dudgeon, "If my ship were filled with silver, +by God, I'd sink her in harbor rather than take away this child!" The +multitude experienced a quick change of feeling and applauded the +sentiment. As the judges and officers trudged away with gloomy faces, +Provided Southwick descended from the auction-block, and brother and +sister went forth into the town free and unharmed. + + + + + THE COURTSHIP OF MYLES STANDISH + +Myles Standish, compact, hard-headed little captain of the Puritan guard +at Plymouth, never knew the meaning of fear until he went a-courting +Priscilla Mullins--or was she a Molines, as some say? He had fought +white men and red men and never reeked of danger in the doing it, but +his courage sank to his boots whenever this demure maiden glanced at +him, as he thought, with approval. Odd, too, for he had been married +once, and Rose was not so long dead that he had forgotten the ways and +likings of women; but he made no progress in his suit, and finally chose +John Alden to urge it for him. John--who divides with Mary Chilton the +honor of being first to land on Plymouth Rock--was a well-favored lad of +twenty-two. Until he could build a house for himself he shared +Standish's cottage and looked up to that worthy as a guardian, but it +was a hard task that was set for him now. He went to goodman Mullins +with a slow step and sober countenance and asked leave to plead his +protector's cause. The father gave it, called his daughter in, and left +them together; then, with noble faith to his mission, the young man +begged the maiden's hand for the captain, dwelling on his valor, +strength, wisdom, his military greatness, his certainty of promotion, +his noble lineage, and all good attributes he could endow him with. + +Priscilla kept at her spinning while this harangue went on, but the +drone of the wheel did not prevent her noting a sigh and a catch of the +breath that interrupted the discourse now and then. She flushed as she +replied, "Why does not Captain Standish come to me himself? If I am +worth the winning I ought to be worth the wooing." + +But John Alden seemed not to notice the girl's confusion until, in a +pause in his eloquence, Priscilla bent her head a little, as if to mend +a break in the flax, and said, "Prithee, John, why don't you speak for +yourself?" + +Then a great light broke on the understanding of John Alden, and a great +warmth welled up in his heart, and--they were married. Myles Standish-- +well, some say that he walked in the wedding procession, while one +narrator holds that the sturdy Roundhead tramped away to the woods, +where he sat for a day, hating himself, and that he never forgave his +protege nor the maiden who took advantage of leap year. However that +may be, the wedding was a happy one, and the Aldens of all America claim +John and Priscilla for their ancestors. + + + + + MOTHER CREWE + +Mother Crewe was of evil repute in Plymouth in the last century. It was +said that she had taken pay for luring a girl into her old farm-house, +where a man lay dead of small-pox, with intent to harm her beauty; she +was accused of blighting land and driving ships ashore with spells; in +brief, she was called a witch, and people, even those who affected to +ignore the craft of wizardry, were content to keep away from her. When +the Revolution ended, Southward Howland demanded Dame Crewe's house and +acre, claiming under law of entail, though primogeniture had been little +enforced in America, where there was room and to spare for all. But +Howland was stubborn and the woman's house had good situation, so one +day he rode to her door and summoned her with a tap of his whip. + +"What do you here on my land?" said he. + +"I live on land that is my own. I cleared it, built my house here, and +no other has claim to it." + +"Then I lay claim. The place is mine. I shall tear your cabin down on +Friday." + +"On Friday they'll dig your grave on Burying Hill. I see the shadow +closing round you. You draw it in with every breath. Quick! Home and +make your peace!" The hag's withered face was touched with spots of red +and her eyes glared in their sunken sockets. + +"Bandy no witch words with me, woman. On Friday I will return." And he +swung himself into his saddle. As he did so a black cat leaped on +Mother Crewe's shoulder and stood there, squalling. The woman listened +to its cries as if they were words. Her look of hate deepened. Raising +her hand, she cried, "Your day is near its end. Repent!" + +"Bah! You have heard what I have said. If on Friday you are not +elsewhere, I'll tear the timbers down and bury you in the ruins." + +"Enough!" cried the woman, her form straightening, her voice grown +shrill. "My curse is on you here and hereafter. Die! Then go down to +hell!" + +As she said this the cat leaped from her shoulder to the flank of the +horse, spitting and clawing, and the frightened steed set off at a +furious pace. As he disappeared in the scrub oaks his master was seen +vainly trying to stop him. The evening closed in with fog and chill, +and before the light waned a man faring homeward came upon the corpse of +Southward Howland stretched along the ground. + + + + + AUNT RACHEL'S CURSE + +On a headland near Plymouth lived "Aunt Rachel," a reputed seer, who +made a scant livelihood by forecasting the future for such seagoing +people as had crossed her palm. The crew of a certain brig came to see +her on the day before sailing, and she reproached one of the lads for +keeping bad company. "Avast, there, granny," interrupted another, who +took the chiding to himself. "None of your slack, or I'll put a stopper +on your gab." The old woman sprang erect. Levelling her skinny finger +at the man, she screamed, "Moon cursers! You have set false beacons and +wrecked ships for plunder. It was your fathers and mothers who decoyed +a brig to these sands and left me childless and a widow. He who rides +the pale horse be your guide, and you be of the number who follow him!" + +That night old Rachel's house was burned, and she barely escaped with +her life, but when it was time for the brig to sail she took her place +among the townfolk who were to see it off. The owner of the brig tried +to console her for the loss of the house. "I need it no longer," she +answered, "for the narrow house will soon be mine, and you wretches +cannot burn that. But you! Who will console you for the loss of your +brig?" + +"My brig is stanch. She has already passed the worst shoal in the bay." + +"But she carries a curse. She cannot swim long." + +As each successive rock and bar was passed the old woman leaned forward, +her hand shaking, her gray locks flying, her eyes starting, her lips +mumbling maledictions, "like an evil spirit, chiding forth the storms as +ministers of vengeance." The last shoal was passed, the merchant sighed +with relief at seeing the vessel now safely on her course, when the +woman uttered a harsh cry, and raised her hand as if to command silence +until something happened that she evidently expected. For this the +onlookers had not long to wait: the brig halted and trembled--her sails +shook in the wind, her crew were seen trying to free the cutter--then +she careened and sank until only her mast-heads stood out of the water. +Most of the company ran for boats and lines, and few saw Rachel pitch +forward on the earth-dead, with a fierce smile of exultation on her +face. The rescuers came back with all the crew, save one--the man who +had challenged the old woman and revengefully burned her cabin. +Rachel's body was buried where her house had stood, and the rock--before +unknown--where the brig had broken long bore the name of Rachel's Curse. + + + + + NIX'S MATE + +The black, pyramidal beacon, called Nix's Mate, is well known to +yachtsmen, sailors, and excursionists in Boston harbor. It rises above +a shoal,--all that is left of a fair, green island which long ago +disappeared in the sea. In 1636 it had an extent of twelve acres, and +on its highest point was a gallows where pirates were hanged in chains. +One night cries were heard on board of a ship that lay at anchor a +little way off shore, and when the watch put off, to see what might be +amiss, the captain, named Nix, was found murdered in his bed. There was +no direct evidence in the case, and no motive could be assigned for the +deed, unless it was the expectancy of promotion on the part of the mate, +in case of his commander's death. + +It was found, however, that this possibility gave significance to +certain acts and sayings of that officer during the voyage, and on +circumstantial evidence so slight as this he was convicted and sentenced +to death. As he was led to execution he swore that he was not guilty, +as he had done before, and from the scaffold he cried aloud, "God, show +that I am innocent. Let this island sink and prove to these people that +I have never stained my hands with human blood." Soon after the +execution of his sentence it was noticed that the surf was going higher +on the shore, that certain rocks were no longer uncovered at low tide, +and in time the island wasted away. The colonists looked with awe on +this manifestation and confessed that God had shown their wrong. + + + + + THE WILD MAN OF CAPE COD + +For years after Bellamy's pirate ship was wrecked at Wellfleet, by false +pilotage on the part of one of his captives, a strange-looking man used +to travel up and down the cape, who was believed to be one of the few +survivors of that night of storm, and of the hanging that others +underwent after getting ashore. The pirates had money when the ship +struck; it was found in the pockets of a hundred drowned who were cast +on the beach, as well as among the sands of the cape, for coin was +gathered there long after. They supposed the stranger had his share, or +more, and that he secreted a quantity of specie near his cabin. After +his death gold was found under his clothing in a girdle. He was often +received at the houses of the fishermen, both because the people were +hospitable and because they feared harm if they refused to feed or +shelter him; but if his company grew wearisome he was exorcised by +reading aloud a portion of the Bible. When he heard the holy words he +invariably departed. + +And it was said that fiends came to him at night, for in his room, +whether he appeared to sleep or wake, there were groans and blasphemy, +uncanny words and sounds that stirred the hair of listeners on their +scalps. The unhappy creature cried to be delivered from his tormenters +and begged to be spared from seeing a rehearsal of the murders he had +committed. For some time he was missed from his haunts, and it was +thought that he had secured a ship and set to sea again; but a traveller +on the sands, while passing his cabin in the small hours, had heard a +more than usual commotion, and could distinguish the voice of the wild +man raised in frantic appeal to somebody, or something; still, knowing +that it was his habit to cry out so, and having misgivings about +approaching the house, the traveller only hurried past. A few neighbors +went to the lonely cabin and looked through the windows, which, as well +as the doors, were locked on the inside. The wild man lay still and +white on the floor, with the furniture upset and pieces of gold clutched +in his fingers and scattered about him. There were marks of claws about +his neck. + + + + + NEWBURY'S OLD ELM + +Among the venerable relics of Newbury few are better known and more +prized than the old elm. It is a stout tree, with a girth of twenty- +four and a half feet, and is said to have been standing since 1713. In +that year it was planted by Richard Jacques, then a youthful rustic, who +had a sweetheart, as all rustics have, and adored her as rustics and +other men should do. On one of his visits he stayed uncommonly late. +It was nearly ten o'clock when he set off for home. The town had been +abed an hour or more; the night was murky and oppressively still, and +corpse-candles were dancing in the graveyard. Witch times had not been +so far agone that he felt comfortable, and, lest some sprite, bogie, +troll, or goblin should waylay him, he tore an elm branch from a tree +that grew before his sweetheart's house, and flourished it as he walked. +He reached home without experiencing any of the troubles that a +superstitious fancy had conjured. As he was about to cast the branch +away a comforting vision of his loved one came into his mind, and he +determined to plant the branch at his own door, that in the hours of +their separation he might be reminded of her who dwelt beneath the +parent tree. He did so. It rooted and grew, and when the youth and +maid had long been married, their children and grandchildren sported +beneath its branches. + + + + + SAMUEL SEWALL'S PROPHECY + +The peace of Newbury is deemed to be permanently secured by the prophecy +of Samuel Sewall, the young man who married the buxom daughter of Mint- +Master John Hull, and received, as wedding portion, her weight in fresh- +coined pine-tree shillings. He afterward became notorious as one of the +witchcraft judges. The prophecy has not been countervailed, nor is it +likely to be, whether the conditions are kept or not. It runs in this +wise: + +"As long as Plum island shall faithfully keep the commanded Post, +Notwithstanding the hectoring words and hard blows of the proud and +boisterous ocean; As long as any Salmon or Sturgeon shall swim in the +streams of Merrimack, or any Perch or Pickeril in Crane Pond; As long as +the Sea Fowl shall know the time of their coming, and not neglect +seasonably to visit the places of their acquaintance; As long as any +Cattel shall be fed with Grass growing in the meadows which doe humbly +bow themselves before Turkie Hill; As long as any Sheep shall walk upon +Old town Hills, and shall from thence look pleasantly down upon the +River Parker and the fruitful Marishes lying beneath; As long as any +free and harmless Doves shall find a White Oak or other Tree within the +township to perch or feed, or build a careless Nest upon, and shall +voluntarily present themselves to perform the office of Gleaners after +Barley Harvest; As long as Nature shall not grow old and dote, but shall +constantly remember to give the rows of Indian Corn their education by +Pairs; So long shall Christians be born there and being first made meet, +shall from thence be translated to be made partakers of the Saints of +Light." + + + + + THE SHRIEKING WOMAN + +During the latter part of the seventeenth century a Spanish ship, richly +laden, was beset off Marblehead by English pirates, who killed every +person on board, at the time of the capture, except a beautiful English +lady, a passenger on the ship, who was brought ashore at night and +brutally murdered at a ledge of rocks near Oakum Bay. As the fishermen +who lived near were absent in their boats, the women and children, who +were startled from their sleep by her piercing shrieks, dared not +attempt a rescue. Taking her a little way from shore in their boat, the +pirates flung her into the sea, and as she came to the surface and +clutched the gunwale they hewed at her hands with cutlasses. She was +heard to cry, "Lord, save me! Mercy! O, Lord Jesus, save me!" Next +day the people found her mangled body on the rocks, and, with bitter +imprecations at the worse than beasts that had done this wrong, they +prepared it for burial. It was interred where it was found, but, +although it was committed to the earth with Christian forms, for one +hundred and fifty years the victim's cries and appeals were repeated, on +each anniversary of the crime, with such distinctness as to affright all +who heard them--and most of the citizens of Marblehead claimed to be of +that number. + + + + + AGNES SURRIAGE + +When, in 1742, Sir Henry Frankland, collector of the port of Boston, +went to Marblehead to inquire into the smuggling that was pretty boldly +carried on, he put up at the Fountain Inn. As he entered that hostelry +a barefooted girl, of sixteen, who was scrubbing the floor, looked at +him. The young man was handsome, well dressed, gallant in bearing, +while Agnes Surriage, maid of all work, was of good figure, beautiful +face, and modest demeanor. Sir Henry tossed out a coin, bidding her to +buy shoes with it, and passed to his room. But the image of Agnes rose +constantly before him. He sought her company, found her of ready +intelligence for one unschooled, and shortly after this visit he +obtained the consent of her parents--humble folk--to take this wild +flower to the city and cultivate it. + +He gave her such an education as the time and place afforded, dressed +her well, and behaved with kindness toward her, while she repaid this +care with the frank bestowal of her heart. The result was not foreseen +--not intended--but they became as man and wife without having wedded. +Colonial society was scandalized, yet the baronet loved the girl +sincerely and could not be persuaded to part from her. Having occasion +to visit England he took Agnes with him and introduced her as Lady +Frankland, but the nature of their alliance had been made known to his +relatives and they refused to receive her. The thought of a permanent +union with the girl had not yet presented itself to the young man. An +aristocrat could not marry a commoner. A nobleman might destroy the +honor of a girl for amusement, but it was beneath his dignity to make +reparation for the act. + +Sir Henry was called to Portugal in 1755, and Agnes went with him. +They arrived inopportunely in one respect, though the sequel showed a +blessing in the accident; for while they were sojourning in Lisbon the +earthquake occurred that laid the city in ruins and killed sixty +thousand people. Sir Henry was in his carriage at the time and was +buried beneath a falling wall, but Agnes, who had hurried from her +lodging at the first alarm, sped through the rocking streets in search +of her lover. She found him at last, and, instead of crying or +fainting, she set to work to drag away the stones and timbers that were +piled upon him. Had she been a delicate creature, her lover's equal in +birth, such as Frankland was used to dance with at the state balls, she +could not have done this, but her days of service at the inn had given +her a strength that received fresh accessions from hope and love. In an +hour she had liberated him, and, carrying him to a place of safety, she +cherished the spark of life until health returned. The nobleman had +received sufficient proof of Agnes's love and courage. He realized, at +last, the superiority of worth to birth. He gave his name, as he had +already given his heart, to her, and their married life was happy. + + + + + SKIPPER IRESON'S RIDE + +Flood, Fluid, or Floyd Ireson (in some chronicles his name is Benjamin) +was making for Marblehead in a furious gale, in the autumn of 1808, in +the schooner Betsy. Off Cape Cod he fell in with the schooner Active, +of Beverly, in distress, for she had been disabled in the heavy sea and +was on her beam ends, at the mercy of the tempest. The master of the +Active hailed Ireson and asked to be taken off, for his vessel could not +last much longer, but the Betsy, after a parley, laid her course again +homeward, leaving the exhausted and despairing crew of the sinking +vessel to shift as best they might. The Betsy had not been many hours +in port before it was known that men were in peril in the bay, and two +crews of volunteers set off instantly to the rescue. But it was too +late. The Active was at the bottom of the sea. The captain and three +of his men were saved, however, and their grave accusation against the +Betsy's skipper was common talk in Marblehead ere many days. + +On a moonlight night Flood Ireson was roused by knocking at his door. +On opening it he was seized by a band of his townsmen, silently hustled +to a deserted spot, stripped, bound, and coated with tar and feathers. +At break of day he was pitched into an old dory and dragged along the +roads until the bottom of the boat dropped out, when he was mounted in a +cart and the procession continued until Salem was reached. The +selectmen of that town turned back the company, and for a part of the +way home the cart was drawn by a jeering crowd of fishwives. Ireson was +released only when nature had been taxed to the limit of endurance. As +his bonds were cut he said, quietly, "I thank you for my ride, +gentlemen, but you will live to regret it." + +Some of the cooler heads among his fellows have believed the skipper +innocent and throw the blame for the abandonment of the sinking vessel +on Ireson's mutinous crew. There are others, the universal deniers, who +believe that the whole thing is fiction. Those people refuse to believe +in their own grandfathers. Ireson became moody and reckless after this +adventure. He did not seem to think it worth the attempt to clear +himself. At times he seemed trying, by his aggressive acts and bitter +speeches, to tempt some hot-tempered townsman to kill him. He died +after a severe freezing, having been blown to sea--as some think by his +own will--in a smack. + + + + + HEARTBREAK HILL + +The name of Heartbreak Hill pertains, in the earliest records of +Ipswich, to an eminence in the middle of that town on which there was a +large Indian settlement, called Agawam, before the white men settled +there and drove the inhabitants out. Ere the English colony had been +firmly planted a sailor straying ashore came among the simple natives of +Agawam, and finding their ways full of novelty he lived with them for a +time. When he found means to return to England he took with him the +love of a maiden of the tribe, but the girl herself he left behind, +comforting her on his departure with an assurance that before many moons +he would return. Months went by and extended into years, and every day +the girl climbed Heartbreak Hill to look seaward for some token of her +lover. At last a ship was seen trying to make harbor, with a furious +gale running her close to shore, where breakers were lashing the rocks +and sand. The girl kept her station until the vessel, becoming +unmanageable, was hurled against the shore and smashed into a thousand +pieces. As its timbers went tossing away on the frothing billows a +white, despairing face was lifted to hers for an instant; then it sank +and was seen nevermore--her lover's face. The "dusky Ariadne" wasted +fast from that day, and she lies buried beside the ledge that was her +watch-tower. + + + + + HARRY MAIN: THE TREASURE AND THE CATS + +Ipswich had a very Old Harry in the person of Harry Main, a dark-souled +being, who, after a career of piracy, smuggling, blasphemy, and +dissipation, became a wrecker, and lured vessels to destruction with +false lights. For his crimes he was sent, after death, to do penance on +Ipswich bar, where he had sent many a ship ashore, his doom being to +twine ropes of sand, though some believe it was to shovel back the sea. +Whenever his rope broke he would roar with rage and anguish, so that he +was heard for miles, whereon the children would run to their trembling +mothers and men would look troubled and shake their heads. After a good +bit of cable had been coiled, Harry had a short respite that he enjoyed +on Plum Island, to the terror of the populace. When the tide and a gale +are rising together people say, as they catch the sound of moaning from +the bar, "Old Harry's grumbling again." + +Now, Harry Main--to say nothing of Captain Kidd--was believed to have +buried his ill-gotten wealth in Ipswich, and one man dreamed for three +successive nights that it had been interred in a mill. Believing that a +revelation had been made to him he set off with spade, lantern, and +Bible, on the first murky night--for he wanted no partner in the +discovery--and found a spot which he recognized as the one that had been +pictured to his sleeping senses. He set to work with alacrity and a +shovel, and soon he unearthed a flat stone and an iron bar. He was +about to pry up the stone when an army of black cats encircled the pit +and glared into it with eyes of fire. + +The poor man, in an access both of alarm and courage, whirled the bar +about his head and shouted "Scat!" The uncanny guards of the treasure +disappeared instanter, and at the same moment the digger found himself +up to his middle in icy water that had poured into the hole as he spoke. + +The moral is that you should never talk when you are hunting for +treasure. Wet, scared, and disheartened, the man crawled out and made +homeward, carrying with him, as proof of his adventure, a case of +influenza and the iron bar. The latter trophy he fashioned into a +latch, in which shape it still does service on one of the doors of +Ipswich. + + + + + THE WESSAGUSCUS HANGING + +Among the Puritans who settled in Wessaguscus, now Weymouth, +Massachusetts, was a brash young fellow, of remarkable size and +strength, who, roaming the woods one day, came on a store of corn +concealed in the ground, in the fashion of the Indians. As anybody +might have done, he filled his hat from the granary and went his way. +When the red man who had dug the pit came back to it he saw that his +cache had been levied on, and as the footprints showed the marauder to +be an Englishman he went to the colonists and demanded justice. The +matter could have been settled by giving a pennyworth of trinkets to the +Indian, but, as the moral law had been broken, the Puritans deemed it +right that the pilferer should suffer. + +They held a court and a proposition was made and seriously considered +that, as the culprit was young, hardy, and useful to the colony, his +clothes should be stripped off and put on the body of a bedridden +weaver, who would be hanged in his stead in sight of the offended +savages. Still, it was feared that if they learned the truth about that +execution the Indians would learn a harmful lessson in deceit, and it +was, therefore, resolved to punish the true offender. He, thinking they +were in jest, submitted to be bound, though before doing so he could +have "cleaned out" the court-room, and ere he was really aware of the +purpose of his judges he was kicking at vacancy. + +Butler, in "Hudibras," quotes the story, but makes the offence more +serious + + "This precious brother, having slain, + In time of peace, an Indian, + Not out of malice, but mere zeal, + Because he was an infidel, + The mighty Tottipotimoy + Sent to our elders an envoy + Complaining sorely of the breach Of league." + +But the Puritans, having considered that the offender was a teacher and +a cobbler, + + "Resolved to spare him; yet, to do + The Indian Hoghan Moghan, too, + Impartial justice, in his stead did + Hang an old weaver that was bed-rid." + +The whole circumstance is cloudy, and the reader may accept either +version that touches his fancy. + + + + + THE UNKNOWN CHAMPION + +There was that in the very air of the New World that made the Pilgrims +revolt against priests and kings. The Revolution was long a-breeding +before shots were fired at Lexington. Stout old Endicott, having +conceived a dislike to the British flag because to his mind the cross +was a relic of popery, paraded his soldiers and with his sword ripped +out the offending emblem in their presence. There was a faint cry of +"Treason!" but he answered, "I will avouch the deed before God and man. +Beat a flourish, drummer. Shout for the ensign of New England. Pope +nor tyrant hath part in it now." And a loud huzza of independence went +forth. + +With this sentiment confirmed among the people, it is not surprising +that the judges who had condemned a papist king--Charles I.--to the +block should find welcome in this land. For months at a time they lived +in cellars and garrets in various parts of New England, their hiding- +places kept secret from the royal sheriffs who were seeking them. For a +time they had shelter in a cave in West Rock, New Haven, and once in +that town they were crouching beneath the bridge that a pursuing party +crossed in search of them. In Ipswich the house is pointed out where +they were concealed in the cellar, and the superstitious believed that, +as a penalty for their regicidal decision, they are doomed to stay +there, crying vainly for deliverance. + +Philip, the Narragansett chief, had declared war on the people of New +England, and was waging it with a persistence and fury that spread +terror through the country. It was a struggle against manifest destiny, +such as must needs be repeated whenever civilization comes to dispute a +place in new lands with savagery, and which has been continued, more and +more feebly, to our own day. The war was bloody, and for a long time +the issue hung in the balance. At last the Indian king was driven +westward. The Nipmucks joined him in the Connecticut Valley, and he +laid siege to the lonely settlements of Brookfield, + +Northfield, Deerfield, and Springfield, killing, scalping, and burning +without mercy. On the 1st of September, 1675, he attacked Hadley while +its people were at church, the war-yelp interrupting a prayer of the +pastor. All the men of the congregation sallied out with pikes and guns +and engaged the foe, but so closely were they pressed that a retreat was +called, when suddenly there appeared among them a tall man, of venerable +and commanding aspect, clad in leather, and armed with sword and gun. + +His hair and beard were long and white, but his eye was dark and +resolute, and his voice was strong. "Why sink your hearts?" he cried. +"Fear ye that God will give you up to yonder heathen dogs? Follow me, +and ye shall see that this day there is a champion in Israel." + +Posting half the force at his command to sustain the fight, he led the +others quickly by a detour to the rear of the Indians, on whom he fell +with such energy that the savages, believing themselves overtaken by +reinforcements newly come, fled in confusion. When the victors returned +to the village the unknown champion signed to the company to fall to +their knees while he offered thanks and prayer. Then he was silent for +a little, and when they looked up he was gone. + +They believed him to be an angel sent for their deliverance, nor, till +he had gone to his account, did they know that their captain in that +crisis was Colonel William Goffe, one of the regicide judges, who, with +his associate Whalley, was hiding from the vengeance of the son of the +king they had rebelled against. After leaving their cave in New Haven, +being in peril from beasts and human hunters, they went up the +Connecticut Valley to Hadley, where the clergyman of the place, Rev. +John Russell, gave them shelter for fifteen years. Few were aware of +their existence, and when Goffe, pale with seclusion from the light, +appeared among the people near whom he had long been living, it is no +wonder that they regarded him with awe. + +Whalley died in the minister's house and was buried in a crypt outside +of the cellar-wall, while Goffe kept much abroad, stopping in many +places and under various disguises until his death, which occurred soon +after that of his associate. He was buried in New Haven. + + + + + GOODY COLE + +Goodwife Eunice Cole, of Hampton, Massachusetts, was so "vehemently +suspected to be a witch" that in 1680 she was thrown into jail with a +chain on her leg. She had a mumbling habit, which was bad, and a wild +look, which was worse. The death of two calves had been charged to her +sorceries, and she was believed to have raised the cyclone that sent a +party of merrymakers to the sea-bottom off the Isles of Shoals, for +insulting her that morning. Some said that she took the shapes of +eagles, dogs, and cats, and that she had the aspect of an ape when she +went through the mummeries that caused Goody Marston's child to die, yet +while she was in Ipswich jail a likeness of her was stumping about the +graveyard on the day when they buried the child. For such offences +as that of making bread ferment and give forth evil odors, that +housekeepers could only dispel by prayer, she was several times +whipped and ducked by the constable. + +At last she lay under sentence of death, for Anna Dalton declared that +her child had been changed in its cradle and that she hated and feared +the thing that had been left there. Her husband, Ezra, had pleaded with +her in vain. "'Tis no child of mine," she cried. "'Tis an imp. Don't +you see how old and shrewd it is? How wrinkled and ugly? It does not +take my milk: it is sucking my blood and wearing me to skin and bone." +Once, as she sat brooding by the fire, she turned to her husband and +said, "Rake the coals out and put the child in them. Goody Cole will +fly fast enough when she hears it screaming, and will come down chimney +in the shape of an owl or a bat, and take the thing away. Then we shall +have our little one back." + +Goodman Dalton sighed as he looked into the worn, scowling face of his +wife; then, laying his hands on her head, he prayed to God that she +might be led out of the shadow and made to love her child again. As he +prayed a gleam of sunset shone in at the window and made a halo around +the face of the smiling babe. Mistress Dalton looked at the little +thing in doubt; then a glow of recognition came into her eyes, and with +a sob of joy she caught the child to her breast, while Dalton embraced +them both, deeply happy, for his wife had recovered her reason. In the +midst of tears and kisses the woman started with a faint cry: she +remembered that a poor old creature was about to expiate on the gallows +a crime that had never been committed. She urged her husband to ride +with all speed to justice Sewall and demand that Goody Cole be freed. +This the goodman did, arriving at Newbury at ten o'clock at night, +when the town had long been abed and asleep. By dint of alarms at the +justice's door he brought forth that worthy in gown and night-cap, and, +after the case had been explained to him, he wrote an order for Mistress +Cole's release. + +With this paper in his hand Dalton rode at once to Ipswich, and when the +cock crew in the dawning the victim of that horrible charge walked +forth, without her manacles. Yet dark suspicion hung about the beldam +to the last, and she died, as she had lived, alone in the little cabin +that stood near the site of the academy. Even after her demise the +villagers could with difficulty summon courage to enter her cot and give +her burial. Her body was tumbled into a pit, hastily dug near her door, +and a stake was driven through the heart to exorcise the powers of evil +that possessed her in life. + + + + + GENERAL MOULTON AND THE DEVIL + +Jonathan Moulton, of Hampton, was a general of consequence in the +colonial wars, but a man not always trusted in other than military +matters. It was even hinted that his first wife died before her time, +for he quickly found consolation in his bereavement by marrying her +companion. In the middle of the night the bride was awakened with a +start, for she felt a cold hand plucking at the wedding-ring that had +belonged to the buried Mrs. Moulton, and a voice whispered in her ear, +"Give the dead her own." With a scream of terror she leaped out of bed, +awaking her husband and causing candles to be brought. The ring was +gone. + +It was long after this occurrence that the general sat musing at his +fireside on the hardness of life in new countries and the difficulty of +getting wealth, for old Jonathan was fond of money, and the lack of it +distressed him worse than a conscience. "If only I could have gold +enough," he muttered, "I'd sell my soul for it." Whiz! came something +down the chimney. The general was dazzled by a burst of sparks, from +which stepped forth a lank personage in black velvet with clean ruffles +and brave jewels. "Talk quick, general," said the unknown, "for in +fifteen minutes I must be fifteen miles away, in Portsmouth." And +picking up a live coal in his fingers he looked at his watch by its +light. "Come. You know me. Is it a bargain?" + +The general was a little slow to recover his wits, but the word +"bargain" put him on his mettle, and he began to think of advantageous +terms. "What proof may there be that you can do your part in the +compact?" he inquired. The unknown ran his fingers through his hair and +a shower of guineas jingled on the floor. They were pretty warm, but +Moulton, in his eagerness, fell on hands and knees and gathered them to +his breast. + +"Give me some liquor," then demanded Satan, for of course he was no +other, and filling a tankard with rum he lighted it with the candle, +remarked, affably, "To our better acquaintance," and tossed off the +blazing dram at a gulp. "I will make you," said he, "the richest man +in the province. Sign this paper and on the first day of every month +I will fill your boots with gold; but if you try any tricks with me +you will repent it. For I know you, Jonathan. Sign." + +Moulton hesitated. "Humph!" sneered his majesty. "You have put me to +all this trouble for nothing." And he began to gather up the guineas +that Moulton had placed on the table. This was more than the victim of +his wiles could stand. He swallowed a mouthful of rum, seized a pen +that was held out to him, and trembled violently as a paper was placed +before him; but when he found that his name was to appear with some of +the most distinguished in the province his nerves grew steadier and he +placed his autograph among those of the eminent company, with a few +crooked embellishments and all the t's crossed. "Good!" exclaimed the +devil, and wrapping his cloak about him he stepped into the fire and was +up the chimney in a twinkling. + +Shrewd Jonathan went out the next day and bought the biggest pair of +jack-boots he could find in Hampton. He hung them on the crane on the +last night of that and all the succeeding months so long as he lived, +and on the next morning they brimmed with coins. Moulton rolled in +wealth. The neighbors regarded his sudden prosperity with amazement, +then with envy, but afterward with suspicion. All the same, Jonathan +was not getting rich fast enough to suit himself. + +When the devil came to make a certain of his periodical payments he +poured guineas down the chimney for half an hour without seeming to fill +the boots. Bushel after bushel of gold he emptied into those spacious +money-bags without causing an overflow, and he finally descended to the +fireplace to see why. Moulton had cut the soles from the boots and the +floor was knee-deep in money. With a grin at the general's smartness +the devil disappeared, but in a few minutes a smell of sulphur pervaded +the premises and the house burst into flames. Moulton escaped in his +shirt, and tore his hair as he saw the fire crawl, serpent-like, over +the beams, and fantastic smoke-forms dance in the windows. Then a +thought crossed his mind and he grew calm: his gold, that was hidden in +wainscot, cupboard, floor, and chest, would only melt and could be +quarried out by the hundred weight, so that he could be well-to-do +again. Before the ruins were cool he was delving amid the rubbish, but +not an ounce of gold could he discover. Every bit of his wealth had +disappeared. It was not long after that the general died, and to quiet +some rumors of disturbance in the graveyard his coffin was dug up. It +was empty. + + + + + THE SKELETON IN ARMOR + +The skeleton of a man wearing a breastplate of brass, a belt made of +tubes of the same metal, and lying near some copper arrow-heads, was +exhumed at Fall River, Massachusetts, in 1834. The body had been +artificially embalmed or else preserved by salts in the soil. His arms +and armor suggest Phoenician origin, but the skeleton is thought to be +that of a Dane or Norwegian who spent the last winter of his life at +Newport. He may have helped to carve the rock at West Newbury, or the +better-known Dighton rock at Taunton River that is covered with +inscriptions which the tides and frosts are fast effacing, and which +have been construed into a record of Norse exploration and discovery, +though some will have it that the inevitable Captain Kidd cut the +figures there to tell of buried treasure. The Indians have a legend of +the arrival of white men in a "bird," undoubtedly a ship, from which +issued thunder and lightning. A battle ensued when the visitors landed, +and the white men wrote the story of it on the rock. Certain scholars +of the eighteenth century declared that the rock bore an account of the +arrival of Phoenician sailors, blown across the Atlantic and unable or +unwilling to return. A representation of the pillars of Hercules was +thought to be included among the sculptures, showing that the castaways +were familiar with the Mediterranean. Only this is known about Dighton +Rock, however: that it stood where it does, and as it does, when the +English settled in this neighborhood. The Indians said there were other +rocks near it which bore similar markings until effaced by tides and +drifting ice. + +Longfellow makes the wraith of the long-buried exile of the armor appear +and tell his story: He was a viking who loved the daughter of King +Hildebrand, and as royal consent to their union was withheld he made off +with the girl, hotly followed by the king and seventy horsemen. The +viking reached his vessel first, and hoisting sail continued his flight +over the sea, but the chase was soon upon him, and, having no +alternative but to fight or be taken, he swung around before the wind +and rammed the side of Hildebrand's galley, crushing in its timbers. +The vessel tipped and sank, and every soul on board went with her, while +the viking's boat kept on her course, and after a voyage of three weeks +put in at Narragansett Bay. The round tower at Newport this impetuous +lover built as a bower for his lady, and there he guarded her from the +dangers that beset those who are first in savage countries. When the +princess died she was buried in the tower, and the lonely viking, +arraying himself in his armor, fell on his spear, like Brutus, and +expired. + + + + + MARTHA'S VINEYARD AND NANTUCKET + +There is no such place as Martha's Vineyard, except in geography and +common speech. It is Martin Wyngaard's Island, and so was named by +Skipper Block, an Albany Dutchman. But they would English his name, +even in his own town, for it lingers there in Vineyard Point. +Bartholomew Gosnold was one of the first white visitors here, for he +landed in 1602, and lived on the island for a time, collecting a cargo +of sassafras and returning thence to England because he feared the +savages. + +This scarred and windy spot was the home of the Indian giant, Maushope, +who could wade across the sound to the mainland without wetting his +knees, though he once started to build a causeway from Gay Head to +Cuttyhunk and had laid the rocks where you may now see them, when a crab +bit his toe and he gave up the work in disgust. He lived on whales, +mostly, and broiled his dinners on fires made at Devil's Den from trees +that he tore up by the roots like weeds. In his tempers he raised mists +to perplex sea-wanderers, and for sport he would show lights on Gay +Head, though these may have been only the fires he made to cook his +supper with, and of which some beds of lignite are to be found as +remains. He clove No-Man's Land from Gay Head, turned his children into +fish, and when his wife objected he flung her to Seconnet Point, where +she preyed on all who passed before she hardened into a ledge. + +It is reported that he found the island by following a bird that had +been stealing children from Cape Cod, as they rolled in the warm sand or +paddled on the edge of the sea. He waded after this winged robber until +he reached Martha's Vineyard, where he found the bones of all the +children that had been stolen. Tired with his hunt he sat down to fill +his pipe; but as there was no tobacco he plucked some tons of poke that +grew thickly and that Indians sometimes used as a substitute for the +fragrant weed. His pipe being filled and lighted, its fumes rolled over +the ocean like a mist--in fact, the Indians would say, when a fog was +rising, "Here comes old Maushope's smoke"--and when he finished he +emptied his pipe into the sea. Falling on a shallow, the ashes made the +island of Nantucket. The first Indians to reach the latter place were +the parents of a babe that had been stolen by an eagle. They followed +the bird in their canoe, but arrived too late, for the little bones had +been picked clean. The Norsemen rediscovered the island and called it +Naukiton. Is Nantucket a corruption of that word, or was that word the +result of a struggle to master the Indian name? + + + + + LOVE AND TREASON + +The tribes that inhabited Nantucket and Martha's Vineyard before the +whites settled the country were constantly at war, and the people of the +western island once resolved to surprise those of Nantucket and slay as +many as possible before they could arm or organize for battle. The +attack was to be made before daybreak, at an hour when their intended +victims would be asleep in their wigwams, but on rowing softly to the +hostile shore, while the stars were still lingering in the west, the +warriors were surprised at finding the enemy alert and waiting their +arrival with bows and spears in hand. To proceed would have been +suicidal, and they returned to their villages, puzzled and disheartened. +Not for some years did they learn how the camp had been apprised, but at +the end of that time, the two tribes being at peace, one of their young +men married a girl of Nantucket, with whom he had long been in love, and +confessed that on the night preceding the attack he had stolen to the +beach, crossed to Nantucket on a neck of sand that then joined the +islands, and was uncovered only at low tide, sought his mistress, warned +her of the attack, that she, at least, might not be killed; then, at a +mad run, with waves of the rising tide lapping his feet, he returned to +his people, who had not missed him. He set off with a grave and +innocent face in the morning, and was as much surprised as any one when +he found the enemy in arms. + + + + + THE HEADLESS SKELETON OF SWAMPTOWN + +The boggy portion of North Kingston, Rhode Island, known as Swamptown, +is of queer repute in its neighborhood, for Hell Hollow, Pork Hill, +Indian Corner, and Kettle Hole have their stories of Indian crimes and +witch-meetings. Here the headless figure of a negro boy was seen by a +belated traveller on a path that leads over the hills. It was a dark +night and the figure was revealed in a blaze of blue light. It swayed +to and fro for a time, then rose from the ground with a lurch and shot +into space, leaving a trail of illumination behind it. Here, too, is +Goose-Nest Spring, where the witches dance at night. It dries up every +winter and flows through the summer, gushing forth on the same day of +every year, except once, when a goose took possession of the empty bed +and hatched her brood there. That time the water did not flow until she +got away with her progeny. + +But the most grewsome story of the place is that of the Indian whose +skull was found by a roadmender. This unsuspecting person took it home, +and, as the women would not allow him to carry it into the house, he +hung it on a pole outside. Just as the people were starting for bed, +there came a rattling at the door, and, looking out of the windows, they +saw a skeleton stalking around in quick and angry strides, like those of +a person looking for something. But how could that be when the skeleton +had neither eyes nor a place to carry them? It thrashed its bony arms +impatiently and its ribs rattled like a xylophone. The spectators were +transfixed with fear, all except the culprit, who said, through the +window, in a matter-of-fact way, "I left your head on the pole at the +back door." The skeleton started in that direction, seized the skull, +clapped it into the place where a head should have grown on its own +shoulders, and, after shaking its fists in a threatening way at the +house, disappeared in the darkness. It is said that he acts as a kind +of guard in the neighborhood, to see that none of the other Indians +buried there shall be disturbed, as he was. His principal lounging +place is Indian Corner, where there is a rock from which blood flows +when the moon shines--a memento, doubtless, of some tragedy that +occurred there in times before the white men knew the place. There is +iron in the soil, and visitors say that the red color is due to that, +and that the spring would flow just as freely on dark nights as on +bright ones, if any were there to see it, but the natives, who have +given some thought to these matters, know better. + + + + + THE CROW AND CAT OF HOPKINSHILL + +In a wood near Hopkins Hill, Rhode Island, is a bowlder, four feet in +diameter, scored with a peculiar furrow. Witch Rock, as it is called, +gained its name two centuries ago, when an old woman abode in a deserted +cabin close by and made the forest dreaded. Figures were seen flitting +through its shadows; articles left out o' nights in neighboring +settlements were missing in the morning, though tramps were unknown; +cattle were afflicted with diseases; stones were flung in at windows by +unseen hands; crops were blighted by hail and frost; and in stormy +weather the old woman was seen to rise out of the woods and stir and +push the clouds before her with a broom. For a hundred yards around +Witch Rock the ground is still accursed, and any attempt to break it up +is unavailing. Nearly a century ago a scoffer named Reynolds declared +that he would run his plough through the enchanted boundary, and the +neighbors watched the attempt from a distance. + +He started well, but on arriving at the magic circle the plough shied +and the wooden landside--or chip, as it was called--came off. It was +replaced and the team started again. In a moment the oxen stood +unyoked, while the chip jumped off and whirled away out of sight. On +this, most of the people edged away in the direction of home, and +directly there came from the north a crow that perched on a dead tree +and cawed. John Hopkins, owner of the land, cried to the bird, "Squawk, +you damned old Pat Jenkins!" and the crow took flight, dropping the chip +at Reynolds's feet, at the same moment turning into a beldam with a +cocked hat, who descended upon the rock. Before the men could reach her +she changed into a black cat and disappeared in the ground. Hunting and +digging came to naught, though the pursuers were so earnest and excited +that one of them made the furrow in the rock with a welt from his +shovel. After that few people cared to go near the place, and it became +overgrown with weeds and trees and bushes. + + + + + THE OLD STONE MILL + +If the round tower at Newport was not Benedict Arnold's wind-mill, and +any one or two of several other things, it is probably a relic of the +occupancy of this country by Thorwald and his Norsemen. After coasting +Wonderstrands (Cape Cod), in the year 1007, they built a town that is +known to historians--if not in their histories--as Norumbega, the lost +city of New England. It is now fancied that the city stood on the +Charles River, near Waltham, Massachusetts, where a monument may be +erected, but it is also believed that they reached the neighborhood of +Newport, Rhode Island. After this tower--popularly called the old +stone mill-was built, a seer among the Narragansetts had a vision in +which he foresaw that when the last remnant of the structure had fallen, +and not one stone had been left on another, the Indian race would vanish +from this continent. The work of its extermination seems, indeed, to +have begun with the possession of the coast by white men, and the fate +of the aborigines is easily read. + + + + + ORIGIN OF A NAME + +The origin of many curious geographical names has become an object of +mere surmise, and this is the more the pity because they suggest such +picturesque possibilities. We would like to know, for instance, how +Burnt Coat and Smutty Nose came by such titles. The conglomerate that +strews the fields south of Boston is locally known as Roxbury pudding- +stone, and, according to Dr. Holmes, the masses are fragments of a +pudding, as big as the State-house dome, that the family of a giant +flung about, in a fit of temper, and that petrified where it fell. But +that would have been called pudding-stone, anyway, from its appearance. +The circumstance that named the reef of Norman's Woe has passed out of +record, though it is known that goodman Norman and his son settled there +in the seventeenth century. It is Longfellow who has endowed the rock +with this legend, for he depicts a wreck there in the fury of a winter +storm in 1680--the wreck of the Hesperus, Richard Norman, master, from +which went ashore next morning the body of an unknown and beautiful +girl, clad in ice and lashed to a broken mast. + +But one of the oddest preservations of an apposite in name is found in +the legend of Point Judith, Rhode Island, an innocent /double entendre/. +About two centuries ago a vessel was driving toward the coast in a gale, +with rain and mist. The skipper's eyes were old and dim, so he got his +daughter Judith to stand beside him at the helm, as he steered the +vessel over the foaming surges. Presently she cried, "Land, father! +I see land!" "Where away?" he asked. But he could not see what she +described, and the roar of the wind drowned her voice, so he shouted, +"Point, Judith! Point!" The girl pointed toward the quarter where she +saw the breakers, and the old mariner changed his course and saved his +ship from wreck. On reaching port he told the story of his daughter's +readiness, and other captains, when they passed the cape in later days, +gave to it the name of Point Judith. + + + + + MICAH ROOD APPLES + +In Western Florida they will show roses to you that drop red dew, like +blood, and have been doing so these many years, for they sprang out of +the graves of women and children who had been cruelly killed by Indians. +But there is something queerer still about the Micah Rood--or "Mike"-- +apples of Franklin, Connecticut, which are sweet, red of skin, snowy of +pulp, and have a red spot, like a blood-drop, near the core; hence they +are sometimes known as bloody-hearts. Micah Rood was a farmer in +Franklin in 1693. Though avaricious he was somewhat lazy, and was more +prone to dream of wealth than to work for it. But people whispered that +he did some hard and sharp work on the night after the peddler came to +town--the slender man with a pack filled with jewelry and knickknacks-- +because on the morning after that visit the peddler was found, beneath +an apple-tree on Rood farm, with his pack rifled and his skull split +open. + +Suspicion pointed at Rood, and, while nothing was proved against him, +he became gloomy, solitary, and morose, keeping his own counsels more +faithfully than ever--though he never was disposed to take counsel of +other people. If he had expected to profit by the crime he was +obviously disappointed, for he became poorer than ever, and his farm +yielded less and less. To be sure, he did little work on it. When the +apples ripened on the tree that had spread its branches above the +peddler's body, the neighbors wagged their heads and whispered the more, +for in the centre of each apple was a drop of the peddler's blood: a +silent witness and judgment, they said, and the result of a curse that +the dying man had invoked against his murderer. Micah Rood died soon +after, without saying anything that his fellow-villagers might be +waiting to hear, but his tree is still alive and its strange fruit has +been grafted on hundreds of orchards. + + + + + A DINNER AND ITS CONSEQUENCES + +The Nipmucks were populous at Thompson, Connecticut, where they +skilfully tilled the fields, and where their earthworks, on Fort Hill, +provided them with a refuge in case of invasion. Their chief, +Quinatisset, had his lodge on the site of the Congregational church in +Thompson. They believed that Chargoggagmanchogagog Pond was paradise-- +the home of the Great Spirit and departed souls--and that it would +always yield fish to them, as the hills did game. They were fond of +fish, and would barter deer-meat and corn for it, occasionally, with the +Narragansetts. + +Now, these last-named Indians were a waterloving people, and to this day +their "fishing fire"--a column of pale flame--rises out of Quinebaug +Lake once in seven years, as those say who have watched beside its +waters through the night. Knowing their fondness for blue-fish and +clams, the Narragansetts asked the Nipmucks to dine with them on one +occasion, and this courtesy was eagerly accepted, the up-country people +distinguishing themselves by valiant trencher deeds; but, alas, that it +should be so! they disgraced themselves when, soon after, they invited +the Narragansetts to a feast of venison at Killingly, and quarrelled +with their guests over the dressing of the food. This rumpus grew into +a battle in which all but two of the invites were slain. Their hosts +buried them decently, but grass would never grow above their graves. + +This treachery the Great Spirit avenged soon after, when the Nipmucks +had assembled for a powwow, with accessory enjoyments, in the grassy +vale where Mashapaug Lake now reflects the charming landscape, and +where, until lately, the remains of a forest could be seen below the +surface. In the height of the revel the god struck away the foundations +of the hills, and as the earth sank, bearing the offending men and +women, waters rushed in and filled the chasm, so that every person was +drowned, save one good old woman beneath whose feet the ground held +firm. Loon Island, where she stood, remains in sight to-day. + + + + + THE NEW HAVEN STORM SHIP + +In 1647 the New Haven colonists, who even at that early day exhibited +the enterprise that has been a distinguishing feature of the Yankee, +sent a ship to Ireland to try to develop a commerce, their trading posts +on the Delaware having been broken up by the Swedes. When their agent, +Captain Lamberton, sailed--in January--the harbor was so beset with ice +that a track had to be cut through the floes to open water, five miles +distant. She had, moreover, to be dragged out stern foremost--an ill +omen, the sailors thought--and as she swung before the wind a passing +drift of fog concealed her, for a moment, from the gaze of those on +shore, who, from this, foretold things of evil. Though large and new, +the ship was so "walty"--inclined to roll--that the captain set off with +misgiving, and as she moved away the crew heard this solemn and +disheartening invocation from a clergyman on the wharf:--"Lord, if it be +thy pleasure to bury these, our friends, in the bottom of the sea, take +them; they are thine: save them." + +Winter passed; so did spring; still the ship came not; but one afternoon +in June, just as a rain had passed, some children cried, "There's a +brave ship!" for, flying up the harbor, with all sail set and flaunting +colors, was a vessel "the very mould of our ship," the clergyman said. + +Strange to tell, she was going flat against the wind; no sailors were on +her deck; she did not toss with the fling of the waves; there was no +ripple at her bow. As she came close to land a single figure appeared +on the quarter, pointing seaward with a cutlass; then suddenly her main- +top fell, her masts toppled from their holdings, the dismantled hulk +careened and went down. A cloud dropped from heaven and brooded for a +time above the place where it had vanished, and when it lifted the +surface of the sea was empty and still. The good folk of New Haven +believed that the fate of the absent ship had been revealed, at last, +for she never came back and Captain Lamberton was never heard from. + + + + + THE WINDAM FROGS + +On a cloudy night in July, 1758, the people of Windham, Connecticut, +were awakened by screams and shrill voices. Some sprang up and looked +to the priming of their muskets, for they were sure that the Indians +were coming; others vowed that the voices were those of witches or +devils, flying overhead; a few ran into the streets with knives and +fire-arms, while others fastened their windows and prayerfully shrank +under the bedclothes. A notorious reprobate was heard blubbering for +a Bible, and a lawyer offered half of all the money that he had made +dishonestly to any charity if his neighbors would guarantee to preserve +his life until morning. + +All night the greatest alarm prevailed. At early dawn an armed party +climbed the hill to the eastward, and seeing no sign of Indians, or +other invaders, returned to give comfort to their friends. A contest +for office was waging at that period between two lawyers, Colonel Dyer +and Mr. Elderkin, and sundry of the people vowed that they had heard a +challenging yell of "Colonel Dyer! Colonel Dyer!" answered by a +guttural defiance of "Elderkin, too! Elderkin, too!" Next day the +reason of it all came out: A pond having been emptied by drought, the +frogs that had lived there emigrated by common consent to a ditch nearer +the town, and on arriving there had apparently fought for its +possession, for many lay dead on the bank. The night was still and the +voices of the contestants sounded clearly into the village, the piping +of the smaller being construed into "Colonel Dyer," and the grumble of +the bull-frogs into "Elderkin, too." The "frog scare" was a subject of +pleasantry directed against Windham for years afterward. + + + + + THE LAMB OF SACRIFICE + +The Revolution was beginning, homes were empty, farms were deserted, +industries were checked, and the levies of a foreign army had consumed +the stores of the people. A messenger rode into the Connecticut Valley +with tidings of the distress that was in the coast towns, and begged the +farmer folk to spare some of their cattle and the millers some of their +flour for the relief of Boston. On reaching Windham he was received +with good will by Parson White, who summoned his flock by peal of bell, +and from the steps of his church urged the needs of his brethren with +such eloquence that by nightfall the messenger had in his charge a flock +of sheep, a herd of cattle, and a load of grain, with which he was to +set off in the morning. The parson's daughter, a shy maid of nine or +ten, went to her father, with her pet lamb, and said to him, "I must +give this, too, for there are little children who are crying for bread +and meat." + +"No, no," answered the pastor, patting her head and smiling upon her. +"They do not ask help from babes. Run to bed and you shall play with +your lamb to-morrow." + +But in the red of the morning, as he drove his herd through the village +street, the messenger turned at the hail of a childish voice, and +looking over a stone wall he saw the little one with her snow-white lamb +beside her. + +"Wait," she cried, "for my lamb must go to the hungry children of +Boston. It is so small, please to carry it for some of the way, and let +it have fresh grass and water. It is all I have." + +So saying, she kissed the innocent face of her pet, gave it into the +arms of the young man, and ran away, her cheeks shining with tears. +Folding the little creature to his breast, the messenger looked +admiringly after the girl: he felt a glow of pride and hope for the +country whose very children responded to the call of patriotism. "Now, +God help me, I will carry this lamb to the city as a sacrifice." So +saying, he set his face to the east and vigorously strode forward. + + + + + MOODUS NOISES + +The village of Moodus, Connecticut, was troubled with noises. There is +no question as to that. In fact, Machimoodus, the Indian name of the +spot, means Place of Noises. As early as 1700, and for thirty years +after, there were crackings and rumblings that were variously compared +to fusillades, to thunder, to roaring in the air, to the breaking of +rocks, to reports of cannon. A man who was on Mount Tom while the +noises were violent describes the sound as that of rocks falling into +immense caverns beneath his feet and striking against cliffs as they +fell. Houses shook and people feared. + +Rev. Mr. Hosmer, in a letter written to a friend in Boston in 1729, says +that before white settlers appeared there was a large Indian population, +that powwows were frequent, and that the natives "drove a prodigious +trade at worshipping the devil." He adds:--"An old Indian was asked what +was the reason of the noises in this place, to which he replied that the +Indian's god was angry because Englishman's god was come here. Now, +whether there be anything diabolical in these things I know not, but +this I know, that God Almighty is to be seen and trembled at in what has +been often heard among us. Whether it be fire or air distressed in the +subterranean caverns of the earth cannot be known for there is no +eruption, no explosion perceptible but by sounds and tremors which are +sometimes very fearful and dreadful." + +It was finally understood that Haddam witches, who practised black +magic, met the Moodus witches, who used white magic, in a cave beneath +Mount Tom, and fought them in the light of a great carbuncle that was +fastened to the roof. The noises recurred in 1888, when houses rattled +in witch-haunted Salem, eight miles away, and the bell on the village +church "sung like a tuning-fork." The noises have occurred +simultaneously with earthquakes in other parts of the country, and +afterward rocks have been found moved from their bases and cracks have +been discovered in the earth. One sapient editor said that the pearls +in the mussels in Salmon and Connecticut Rivers caused the disturbance. + +If the witch-fights were continued too long the king of Machimoddi, who +sat on a throne of solid sapphire in the cave whence the noises came, +raised his wand: then the light of the carbuncle went out, peals of +thunder rolled through the rocky chambers, and the witches rushed into +the air. Dr. Steele, a learned and aged man from England, built a +crazy-looking house in a lonely spot on Mount Tom, and was soon as much +a mystery as the noises, for it was known that he had come to this +country to stop them by magic and to seize the great carbuncle in the +cave--if he could find it. Every window, crack, and keyhole was closed, +and nobody was admitted while he stayed there, but the clang of hammers +was heard in his house all night, sparks shot from his chimney, and +strange odors were diffused. When all was ready for his adventure he +set forth, his path marked by a faint light that moved before him and +stopped at the closed entrance to the cavern. + +Loud were the Moodus noises that night. The mountain shook and groans +and hisses were heard in the air as he pried up the stone that lay +across the pit-mouth. When he had lifted it off a light poured from it +and streamed into the heaven like a crimson comet or a spear of the +northern aurora. It was the flash of the great carbuncle, and the stars +seen through it were as if dyed in blood. In the morning Steele was +gone. He had taken ship for England. The gem carried with it an evil +fate, for the galley sank in mid-ocean; but, though buried beneath a +thousand fathoms of water, the red ray of the carbuncle sometimes shoots +up from the sea, and the glow of it strikes fear into the hearts of +passing sailors. Long after, when the booming was heard, the Indians +said that the hill was giving birth to another beautiful stone. + +Such cases are not singular. A phenomenon similar to the Moodus noises, +and locally known as "the shooting of Nashoba Hill," occurs at times in +the eminence of that name near East Littleton, Massachusetts. The +strange, deep rumbling was attributed by the Indians to whirlwinds +trying to escape from caves. + +Bald Mountain, North Carolina, was known as Shaking Mountain, for +strange sounds and tremors were heard there, and every moonshiner who +had his cabin on that hill joined the church and was diligent in worship +until he learned that the trembling was due to the slow cracking and +separation of a great ledge. + +At the end of a hot day on Seneca Lake, New York, are sometimes heard +the "lake guns," like exploding gas. Two hundred years ago Agayentah, a +wise and honored member of the Seneca tribe, was killed here by a +lightning-stroke. The same bolt that slew him wrenched a tree from the +bank and hurled it into the water, where it was often seen afterward, +going about the lake as if driven by unseen currents, and among the +whites it got the name of the Wandering Jew. It is often missing for +weeks together, and its reappearances are heralded by the low booming +of--what? The Indians said that the sound was but the echo of +Agayentah's voice, warning them of dangers and summoning them to battle, +while the Wandering Jew became his messenger. + + + + + HADDAM ENCHANTMENTS + +When witchcraft went rampant through New England the Connecticut town of +Haddam owned its share of ugly old women, whom it tried to reform by +lectures and ducking, instead of killing. It was averred that Goody So- +and-So had a black cat for a familiar, that Dame Thus-and-Thus rode on a +broomstick on stormy nights and screeched and gibbered down the farm- +house chimneys, and there were dances of old crones at Devils' Hop Yard, +Witch Woods, Witch Meadows, Giant's Chair, Devil's Footprint, and +Dragon's Rock. Farmers were especially fearful of a bent old hag in a +red hood, who seldom appeared before dusk, but who was apt to be found +crouched on their door-steps if they reached home late, her mole-covered +cheeks wrinkled with a grin, two yellow fangs projecting between her +lips, and a light shining from her eyes that numbed all on whom she +looked. On stormy nights she would drum and rattle at windows, and by +firelight and candle-light her face was seen peering through the panes. + +At Chapman Falls, where the attrition of a stream had worn pot-holes in +the rocks, there were meetings of Haddam witches, to the number of a +dozen. They brewed poisons in those holes, cast spells, and talked in +harsh tongues with the arch fiend, who sat on the brink of the ravine +with his tail laid against his shoulder, like a sceptre, and a red glow +emanating from his body. + +In Devils' Hop Yard was a massive oak that never bears leaves or acorns, +for it has been enchanted since the time that one of the witches, in the +form of a crow, perched on the topmost branch, looked to the four points +of the compass, and flew away. That night the leaves fell off, the +twigs shrivelled, sap ceased to run, and moss began to beard its +skeleton limbs. + +The appearance of witches in the guise of birds was no unusual thing, +indeed, and a farmer named Blakesley shot one of them in that form. He +was hunting in a meadow when a rush of wings was heard and he saw pass +overhead a bird with long neck, blue feathers, and feet like scrawny +hands. It uttered a cry so weird, so shrill, so like mocking laughter +that it made him shudder. This bird alighted on a dead tree and he shot +at it. With another laughing yell it circled around his head. Three +times he fired with the same result. Then he resolved to see if it were +uncanny, for nothing evil can withstand silver--except Congress. Having +no bullets of that metal he cut two silver buttons from his shirt and +rammed them home with a piece of cloth and a prayer. This time the bird +screamed in terror, and tried, but vainly, to rise from the limb. He +fired. The creature dropped, with a button in its body, and fell on its +right side. At that moment an old woman living in a cabin five miles +distant arose from her spinning-wheel, gasped, and fell on her right +side-dead. + + + + + BLOCK ISLAND AND THE PALATINE + +Block Island, or Manisees, is an uplift of clayey moorland between +Montauk and Gay Head. It was for sailors an evil place and "bad +medicine" for Indians, for men who had been wrecked there had been +likewise robbed and ill treated--though the honest islanders of to-day +deny it--while the Indians had been driven from their birthright after +hundreds of their number had fallen in its defence. In the winter of +1750-51 the ship Palatine set forth over the seas with thrifty Dutch +merchants and emigrants, bound for Philadelphia, with all their goods. +A gale delayed them and kept them beating to and fro on the icy seas, +unable to reach land. The captain died--it was thought that he was +murdered--and the sailors, a brutal set even for those days, threw off +all discipline, seized the stores and arms, and starved the passengers +into giving up their money. + +When those died of hunger whose money had given out--for twenty guilders +were demanded for a cup of water and fifty rix dollars for a biscuit-- +their bodies were flung into the sea, and when the crew had secured all +that excited their avarice they took to their boats, leaving ship and +passengers to their fate. It is consoling to know that the sailors +never reached a harbor. The unguided ship, in sight of land, yet tossed +at the mercy of every wind and tenanted by walking skeletons, struck off +Block Island one calm Sunday morning and the wreckers who lived along +the shore set out for her. Their first work was to rescue the +passengers; then they returned to strip everything from the hulk that +the crew had left; but after getting her in tow a gale sprang up, and +seeing that she was doomed to be blown off shore, where she might become +a dangerous obstruction or a derelict, they set her on fire. From the +rocks they watched her drift into misty darkness, but as the flames +mounted to the trucks a scream rang across the whitening sea: a maniac +woman had been left on board. The scream was often repeated, each time +more faintly, and the ship passed into the fog and vanished. + +A twelvemonth later, on the same evening of the year, the islanders were +startled at the sight of a ship in the offing with flames lapping up her +sides and rigging, and smoke clouds rolling off before the wind. It +burned to the water's edge in sight of hundreds. In the winter +following it came again, and was seen, in fact, for years thereafter at +regular intervals, by those who would gladly have forgotten the sight of +it (one of the community, an Indian, fell into madness whenever he saw +the light), while those who listened caught the sound of a woman's voice +raised in agony above the roar of fire and water. + +Substantially the same story is told of a point on the North Carolina +coast, save that in the latter case the passengers, who were from the +Bavarian Palatinate, were put to the knife before their goods were +taken. The captain and his crew filled their boats with treasure and +pulled away for land, first firing the ship and committing its ghastly +freight to the flames. The ship followed them almost to the beach, ere +it fell to pieces, as if it were an animate form, bent on vengeance. +The pirates landed, but none profited by the crime, all of them dying +poor and forsaken. + + + + + THE BUCCANEER + +Among the natives of Block Island was a man named Lee. Born in the last +century among fishermen and wreckers, he has naturally taken to the sea +for a livelihood, and, never having known the influences of education +and refinement, he is rude and imperious in manner. His ship lies in a +Spanish port fitting for sea, but not with freight, for, tired of +peaceful trading, Lee is equipping his vessel as a privateer. A Spanish +lady who has just been bereaved of her husband comes to him to ask a +passage to America, for she has no suspicion of his intent. Her jewels +and well-filled purse arouse Lee's cupidity, and with pretended sympathy +he accedes to her request, even going so far as to allow Senora's +favorite horse to be brought aboard. + +Hardly is the ship in deep water before the lady's servants are stabbed +in their sleep and Lee smashes in the door of her cabin. Realizing his +purpose, and preferring to sacrifice life to honor, she eludes him, +climbs the rail, and leaps into the sea, while the ship ploughs on. +As a poor revenge for being thus balked of his prey the pirate has the +beautiful white horse flung overboard, the animal shrilling a neigh that +seems to reach to the horizon, and is like nothing ever heard before. +But these things he affects to forget in dice and drinking. In a +dispute over a division of plunder Lee stabs one of his men and tosses +him overboard. Soon the rovers come to Block Island, where, under cover +of night, they carry ashore their stealings to hide them in pits and +caves, reserving enough gold to buy a welcome from the wreckers, and +here they live for a year, gaming and carousing. Their ship has been +reported as a pirate and to baffle search it is set adrift. + +One night a ruddy star is seen on the sea-verge and the ruffians leave +their revelling to look at it, for it is growing into sight fast. It +speeds toward them and they can now see that it is a ship--their +shipwrapped in flames. It stops off shore, and out of the ocean at its +prow emerges something white that they say at first is a wave-crest +rolling upon the sands; but it does not dissolve as breakers do: it +rushes on; it scales the bluff it is a milk-white horse, that gallops to +the men, who inly wonder if this is an alcoholic vision, and glares at +Lee. A spell seems to be laid on him, and, unable to resist it, the +buccaneer mounts the animal. It rushes away, snorting and plunging, to +the highest bluff, whence Lee beholds, in the light of the burning ship, +the bodies of all who have been done to death by him, staring into his +eyes through the reddening waves. + +At dawn the horse sinks under him and he stands there alone. From that +hour even his companions desert him. They fear to share his curse. He +wanders about the island, a broken, miserable man, unwilling to live, +afraid to die, refused shelter and friendship, and unable to reach the +mainland, for no boat will give him passage. After a year of this +existence the ship returns, the spectre horse rises from the deep and +claims Lee again for a rider. He mounts; the animal speeds away to the +cliff, but does not pause at the brink this time: with a sickening jump +and fall he goes into the sea. Spurning the wave-tops in his flight he +makes a circuit of the burning ship, and in the hellish light, that +fills the air and penetrates to the ocean bottom, the pirate sees again +his victims looking up with smiles and arms spread to embrace him. + +There is a cry of terror as the steed stops short; then a gurgle, and +horse and rider have disappeared. The fire ship vanishes and the night +is dark. + + + + + ROBERT LOCKWOOD'S FATE + +In the winter of 1779, General Putnam was stationed at Reading, +Connecticut, with a band of ill-fed, unpaid troops. He was quartered at +the Marvin house, and Mary, daughter of farmer Marvin, won her way to +the heart of this rough soldier through the excellence of her dumplings +and the invigorating quality of her flip. He even took her into his +confidence, and, being in want of a spy in an emergency, he playfully +asked her if she knew any brave fellow who could be trusted to take a +false message into the British lines that would avert an impending +attack. Yes, she knew such an one, and would guarantee that he would +take the message if the fortunes of the colonial army would be helped +thereby. Putnam assured her that it would aid the patriot cause, and, +farther, that he would reward her; whereat, with a smile and a twinkling +eye, the girl received the missive and left the room. + +When daylight had left the sky, Mary slipped out of the house, crossed +a pasture, entered a ravine, and in a field beyond reached a cattle +shelter. On the instant a tall form stepped from the shadows and she +sank into its embrace. There was a kiss, a moment of whispered talk, +and the girl hurriedly asked her lover if he would carry a letter to the +British headquarters, near Ridgefield. Of course he would. But he must +not read it, and he must on no account say from whom he had it. The +young man consented without a question--that she required it was +sufficient; so, thrusting the tiny paper into his hand and bidding him +God-speed, she gave him another kiss and they parted--he to go on his +errand, she to pass the night with the clergyman's daughter at the +parsonage. At about ten o'clock Putnam was disturbed by the tramping of +feet and a tall, goodlooking fellow was thrust into his room by a couple +of soldiers. The captive had been found inside the lines, they said, in +consultation with some unknown person who had escaped the eye of the +sentry in the darkness. When captured he had put a piece of paper into +his mouth and swallowed it. He gave the name of Robert Lockwood, and +when Putnam demanded to know what he had been doing near the camp +without a permit he said that he was bound by a promise not to tell. + +"Are you a patriot?" asked the general. + +"I am a royalist. I do not sympathize with rebellion. I have been a +man of peace in this war." + +Putnam strode about the room, giving vent to his passion in language +neither choice nor gentle, for he had been much troubled by spies and +informers since he had been there. Then, stopping, he said: + +"Some one was with you to-night-some of my men. Tell me that traitor's +name and I'll spare your life and hang him before the whole army." + +The prisoner turned pale and dropped his head. He would not violate his +promise. + +"You are a British spy, and I'll hang you at sunrise!" roared Putnam. + +In vain the young man pleaded for time to appeal to Washington. He was +not a spy, he insisted, and it would be found, perhaps too late, that a +terrible mistake had been committed. His words were unheeded: he was +led away and bound, and as the sun was rising on the next morning the +sentence of courtmartial was executed upon him. + +At noon Mary returned from the parsonage, her eyes dancing and her mouth +dimpling with smiles. Going to Putnam, she said, with a dash of +sauciness, "I have succeeded, general. I found a lad last night to take +your message. I had to meet him alone, for he is a Tory; so he cannot +enter this camp. The poor fellow had no idea that he was doing a +service for the rebels, for he did not know what was in the letter, and +I bound him not to tell who gave it to him. You see, I punished him for +abiding by the king." + +The general laughed and gazed at her admiringly. + +"You're a brave girl," he said, "and I suppose you've come for your +reward. Well, what is it to be?" + +"I want a pass for Robert Lockwood. He is the royalist I spoke of, but +he will not betray you, for he is not a soldier; and--his visits make me +very happy." + +"The spy you hanged this morning," whispered an aide in Putnam's ear. +"Give her the pass and say nothing of what has happened." + +The general started, changed color, and paused; then he signed the order +with a dash, placed it in the girl's hand, gravely kissed her, watched +her as she ran lightly from the house, and going to his bedroom closed +the door and remained alone for an hour. From that time he never spoke +of the affair, but when his troops were ordered away, soon after, he +almost blenched as he gave good-by to Mary Marvin, and met her sad, +reproachful look, though to his last day he never learned whether or no +she had discovered Robert Lockwood's fate. + + + + + LOVE AND RUM + +Back in the seventeenth century a number of Yankee traders arrived in +Naugatuck to barter blankets, beads, buttons, Bibles, and brandy for +skins, and there they met chief Toby and his daughter. Toby was not a +pleasing person, but his daughter was well favored, and one of the +traders told the chief that if he would allow the girl to go to Boston +with him he would give to him--Toby--a quart of rum. Toby was willing +enough. He would give a good deal for rum. But the daughter declined +to be sold off in such a fashion unless--she coyly admitted--she could +have half of the rum herself. Loth as he was to do so, Toby was brought +to agree to this proposition, for he knew that rum was rare and good and +girls were common and perverse, so the gentle forest lily took her mug +of liquor and tossed it off. Now, it is not clear whether she wished to +nerve herself for the deed that followed or whether the deed was a +result of the tonic, but she made off from the paternal wigwam and was +presently seen on the ledge of Squaw Rock, locally known also as High +Rock, from which in another moment she had fallen. Toby had pursued +her, and on finding her dead he vented a howl of grief and anger and +flung the now empty rum-jug after her. A huge bowlder arose from the +earth where it struck, and there it remains--a monument to the girl and +a warning to Tobies. + +Another version of the story is that the girl sprang from the rock to +escape the pursuit of a lover who was hateful to her, and who had her +almost in his grasp when she made the fatal leap. In the crevice half- +way up the cliff her spirit has often been seen looking regretfully into +the rich valley that was her home, and on the 20th of March and 20th of +September, in every year, it is imposed on her to take the form of a +seven-headed snake, the large centre head adorned with a splendid +carbuncle. Many have tried to capture the snake and secure this +precious stone, for an old prophecy promises wealth to whoever shall +wrest it from the serpent. But thus far the people of Connecticut have +found more wealth in clocks and tobacco than in snakes and carbuncles. + + + + + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MYTHS-LEGENDS, BY SKINNER, V4 *** + +********* This file should be named cs04w10.txt or cs04w10.zip ********* + +Corrected EDITIONS of our eBooks get a new NUMBER, cs04w11.txt +VERSIONS based on separate sources get new LETTER, cs04w10a.txt + +This eBook was produced by David Widger <widger@cecomet.net> + +Project Gutenberg eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the US +unless a copyright notice is included. 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