 The Apparition of Mrs. Veal by Daniel Defoe This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org The Apparition of Mrs. Veal This thing is so rare in all its circumstances and on so good authority that my reading and conversation have not given me anything like it. It is fit to gratify the most ingenious and serious inquirer. Mrs. Bargrave is the person to whom Mrs. Veal appeared after her death. She is my intimate friend and I can vouch for her reputation for these 15 or 16 years on my own knowledge and I can confirm the good character she had from her youth to the time of my acquaintance. Though since this relation she is culminated by some people that are friends to the brother of Mrs. Veal who appeared who think the relation of this appearance to be a reflection and endeavour what they can to blast Mrs. Bargrave's reputation and to laugh the story out of countenance. But by the circumstances thereof and the cheerful disposition of Mrs. Bargrave notwithstanding the ill usage of a very wicked husband there is not yet the least sign of dejection in her face nor did I ever hear her let fall a desponding or murmuring expression nay, not when actually under her husband's barbarity which I have been a witness to and several other persons of undoubted reputation. Now you must know Mrs. Veal was a maiden gentlewoman of about 30 years of age and for some years past have been troubled with fits which were perceived coming on her by her going off from her discourse very abruptly to some impertinence. She was maintained by an only brother and kept his house in Dover. She was a very pious woman and her brother a very sober man to all appearance but now he does all he can to null and quash the story. Mrs. Veal was intimately acquainted with Mrs. Bargrave from her childhood Mrs. Veal's circumstances were then mean her father did not take care of his children as he ought so that they were exposed to hardships and Mrs. Bargrave in those days had as unkind a father though she wanted neither for food nor clothing while Mrs. Veal wanted for both in so much that she would often say Mrs. Bargrave you are not only the best but the only friend I have in the world and no circumstance of life shall ever dissolve my friendship. They would often condole each other's adverse fortunes and read together Jelling Court upon death and other good books and so like two Christian friends they comforted each other under their sorrow. Sometime after Mr. Veal's friends got him a place in the custom house at Dover which occasioned Mrs. Veal by little and little to fall off from her intimacy with Mrs. Bargrave though there was never any such thing as a quarrel but an indifference came on by degrees till at last Mrs. Bargrave had not seen her in two years and a half though above a twelve month of the time Mrs. Bargrave has been absent from Dover and this last half year has been in Canterbury about two months of the time dwelling in a house of her own. In this house on the eighth of September one thousand seven hundred and five she was sitting alone in the forenoon thinking over her unfortunate life and arguing herself into a due resignation to Providence though her condition seemed hard and said she I have been provided for hitherto and doubt not but I shall be still and am well satisfied that my affliction shall end when it is most fit for me and then took up her sewing work which she had no sooner done but she hears a knocking at the door she went to see who was there and this proved to be Mrs. Veal her old friend who was in a riding habit at that moment of time the clock struck twelve at noon Madam said Mrs. Bargrave I am surprised to see you you have been so long a stranger but told her she was glad to see her and offered to salute her which Mrs. Veal complied with till their lips almost touched and then Mrs. Veal drew her hand across her own eyes and said I am not very well and so waved it she told Mrs. Bargrave she was going a journey and had a great mind to see her first but said Mrs. Bargrave how can you take a journey alone I am amazed at it because I know you have a fond brother oh said Mrs. Veal I gave my brother the slip and came away because I had so great a desire to see you before I took my journey so Mrs. Bargrave went in with her into another room within the first and Mrs. Veal sat her down in an elbow chair in which Mrs. Bargrave was sitting when she heard Mrs. Veal knock then said Mrs. Veal my dear friend I am come to renew our old friendship again and beg your pardon for my breach of it and if you can forgive me you are the best of women oh said Mrs. Bargrave do not mention such a thing I have not had an uneasy thought about it what did you think of me says Mrs. Veal says Mrs. Bargrave I thought you were like the rest of the world and that prosperity have made you forget yourself and me then Mrs. Veal reminded Mrs. Bargrave of the many friendly offices she did her in former days and much of the conversation they had with each other in the times of their adversity and what books they read and what comfort in particular they received from Gellingcourt's Book of Death which was the best she said on the subject ever wrote she also mentioned Dr. Sherlock and two Dutch books which were translated wrote upon death and several others but Gellingcourt she said had the clearest notions of death and of the future state of any who had handled that subject then she asked Mrs. Bargrave whether she had Gellingcourt she said yes says Mrs. Veal fetch it and so Mrs. Bargrave goes upstairs and brings it down says Mrs. Veal dear Mrs. Bargrave if the eyes of our faith were as open as the eyes of our body we should see numbers of angels about us for our guard the notions we have of heaven now are nothing like what it is as Gellingcourt says therefore be comforted under your afflictions and believe that the Almighty has a particular regard to you and that your afflictions are marks of God's favour and when they have done the business they are sent for they shall be removed from you and believe me my dear friend believe what I say to you one minute of future happiness will infinitely reward you for all your sufferings for I can never believe and claps her hand upon her knee with great earnestness which indeed ran through most of her discourse that ever God will suffer you to spend all your days in this afflicted state but be assured that your afflictions shall leave you or you then in a short time she's spaking that pathetical and heavenly manner that Mrs. Bargrave wept several times she was so deeply affected with it then Mrs. Veal mentioned Dr. Kendrick's athetic at the end of which he gives an account of the lives of the primitive Christians their pattern she recommended to our imitation he said their conversation was not like this of our age for now says she there is nothing but vain frothy discourse which is far different from theirs theirs was to edification and to build one another up in faith so that they were not as we are nor are we as they were but says she we ought to do as they did there was a hearty friendship among them but where is it now to be found says Mrs. Bargrave it is hard indeed to find a true friend in these days says Mrs. Veal Mr. Norris has a fine copy of verses called friendship and perfection which I wonderfully admire have you seen the book says Mrs. Veal no says Mrs. Bargrave but I have the verses of my own writing out have you says Mrs. Veal then fetch them which she did from above stairs and offered them to Mrs. Veal to read who refused and waved the thing saying holding down her head would make it ache then desiring Mrs. Bargrave to read them to her which she did as they were admiring friendship Mrs. Veal said do Mrs. Bargrave I shall love you forever in these verses there is twice used the word Elysian ah said Mrs. Veal these poets have such names for heaven she would often draw her hand across her own eyes and say Mrs. Bargrave do you not think I am mightily impaired by my fits no said Mrs. Bargrave I think you look as well as ever I knew you after this discourse which the apparition put in much finer words than Mrs. Bargrave said she could pretend to do and as much more than she can remember for it cannot be thought that an hour three quarters conversation could all be retained though the main of it she thinks she does she said to Mrs. Bargrave she would have her write a letter to her brother and tell him she would have him give rings to such and such and that there was a purse of gold in her cabinet and that she would have two broad pieces given to her cousin Watson talking at this rate Mrs. Bargrave thought that a fit was coming upon her and so placed herself on a chair just before her knees to keep her from falling to the ground if her fits should occasion it for the elbow chair she thought would keep her from falling on either side and to divert Mrs. Veal as she thought took hold of her gown sleeve several times and commended it Mrs. Veal told her it was a scoured silk and newly made up but for all this Mrs. Veal persisted in her request and told Mrs. Bargrave she must not deny her and she would have her tell her brother all their conversation when she had the opportunity Dear Mrs. Veal said Mrs. Bargrave this seems so impertinent that I cannot tell how to comply with it and what a mortifying story will our conversation be to a young gentleman Why says Mrs. Bargrave it is much better me things to do it yourself No, said Mrs. Veal though it seems impertinent to you now you will see more reasons for it hereafter Mrs. Bargrave then to satisfy her impotunity was going to fetch a pen and ink but Mrs. Veal said let it alone now but do it when I am gone but you must be sure to do it which was one of the last things she enjoyed her at parting and so she promised her then Mrs. Veal asked for Mrs. Bargrave's daughter she said she was not home but if you have a mind to see her said Mrs. Bargrave I'll send for her do said Mrs. Veal on which she left her and went to her neighbours to see her and by the time Mrs. Bargrave was returning Mrs. Veal was got without the door in the street in the face of the beast market on a Saturday which is market day and stood ready to part as soon as Mrs. Bargrave came to her she asked her why she was in such haste she said she must be going though perhaps she might not go her journey till Monday and told Mrs. Bargrave she hoped she would see her again at her cousin Watson's before she went with her she was going then she said she would take her leave of her and walked from Mrs. Bargrave in her view till a turning interrupted the sight of her which was three quarters after one in the afternoon Mrs. Veal died the 7th of September at 12 o'clock at noon of her fits and not above four hours senses before her death in which time she received the sacrament the next day after Mrs. Veal's appearance being Sunday Mrs. Bargrave was mightily indisposed with a cold and sore throat and she could not go out that day but on Monday morning she sends a person to Captain Watson's to know if Mrs. Veal was there they wondered at Mrs. Bargrave's inquiry and sent her word she was not there nor was expected at this answer Mrs. Bargrave told the maid she had certainly mistook the name or made some blunder and though she was ill she put on her hood and went herself to Captain Watson's though she knew none of the family to see if Mrs. Veal was there or not they said they wondered at her asking for that she had not been in town they were sure if she had she would have been there says Mrs. Bargrave I am sure she was with me on Saturday almost two hours they said it was impossible but they must have seen her if she had in comes Captain Watson while they were in dispute and said that Mrs. Veal was certainly dead and the escutcheons were making this strangely surprised Mrs. Bargrave when she sent to the person immediately who had the care of them and found it true then she related the whole story to Captain Watson's family and what gown she had on and how striped and that Mrs. Veal told her that it was scoured then Mrs. Watson cried out you have seen her indeed for none new but Mrs. Veal and myself that the gown was scoured and Mrs. Watson owned that she described the gown exactly for said she I helped her to make it up then Mrs. Watson blazed all about the town and vouched the demonstration of truth that Mrs. Bargrave's seeing Mrs. Veal's apparition and Captain Watson carried two gentlemen immediately to Mrs. Bargrave's house to hear the relation from her own mouth and when it spread so fast the gentleman and persons of quality the judicious and sceptical part of the world flocked in upon her it at last became such a task that she was forced to go out of the way for they were in general extremely satisfied of the truth of the thing and plainly saw that Mrs. Bargrave was no hypochondriac for she always appears with such a cheerful air and pleasing mean that she has gained the favour and esteem of all the gentry and it is thought a great favour if they can but get the relation from her own mouth I should have told you before that Mrs. Veal told Mrs. Bargrave that her sister and brother-in-law were just come down from London to see her said Mrs. Bargrave how came you to order matters so strangely he could not be helped said Mrs. Veal and her brother and sister did come to see her and entered the town of Dober just as Mrs. Veal was expiring Mrs. Bargrave asked her whether she would drink some tea says Mrs. Veal I do not care if I do but I'll warrant you this mad fellow meaning Mrs. Bargrave's husband has broke all your trinkets but says Mrs. Bargrave I'll get something to drink him for all that but Mrs. Veal waved it and said it is no matter let it alone and so it passed all the time I sat with Mrs. Bargrave which for some hours she recollected fresh sayings of Mrs. Veal and one material thing more she told Mrs. Bargrave that old Mr. Bretton allowed Mrs. Veal ten pounds a year which was a secret and unknown to Mrs. Bargrave till Mrs. Veal told her Mrs. Bargrave never varies in her story which puzzles those who doubt of the truth or are unwilling to believe it a servant in the neighbour's yard adjoining to Mrs. Bargrave's house heard her talking to somebody an hour of the time Mrs. Veal was with her Mrs. Bargrave went out to her next neighbour's the very moment she parted with Mrs. Veal and told her what ravishing conversation she had had with an old friend and told the whole of it Dwelling Court's Book of Death is, since this happened bought up strangely and it is to be observed that notwithstanding all the trouble and fatigue Mrs. Bargrave has undergone upon this account she never took the value of her father nor suffered her daughter to take anything of anybody and therefore can have no interest in telling the story but Mr. Veal does what he can to snipe with a matter and said he would see Mrs. Bargrave but yet it is certain matter of fact that he has been at Captain Watson since the death of his sister and yet never went near Mrs. Bargrave and some of his friends report her to be a liar and that she knew of Mr. Breton's ten pounds a year but the person who pretends to say so has the reputation to be a notorious liar among persons who might know to be of undoubted credit Now Mr. Veal is more of a gentleman than to say she lies but says her bad husband has crazed her but she needs only present herself and it will effectually confute that presence Mr. Veal says he asked his sister on her deathbed whether she had a mind to dispose of anything and she said no Now the things which Mrs. Veal's apparition would have disposed of were so trifling and nothing of injustice aimed at the disposal that the design of it appears to me to be only in order to make Mrs. Bargrave satisfy the world of the reality thereof as to what she had seen and heard and to secure her reputation among the reasonable and understanding part of mankind and then again Mr. Veal owns that there was a purse of gold that it was not found in her cabinet but in a comb box this looks improbable for that Mrs. Watson owned that Mrs. Veal was so very careful of the key of her cabinet that she would trust nobody with it and if so no doubt she would not trust her gold out of it and Mrs. Veal's often drawing her hands over her eyes and asking Mrs. Bargrave whether her fits had not impaired her looks to me as if she did it on purpose to remind Mrs. Bargrave of her fits to prepare her not to think it's changed that she should put her upon writing to her brother to dispose of rings and gold which looked so much like a dying person's request and it took accordingly with Mrs. Bargrave as the effect of her fits coming upon her and was one of the many instances of her wonderful love to her and care of her that she should not be affrighted which indeed appears in her whole management particularly in her coming to her in the daytime waving the salutation and when she was alone and then the manner of her parting to prevent a second attempt to salute her now why Mr. Veal should think this relational reflection as it is plain he does by his endeavoring to stifle it I cannot imagine because the generality believe her to be a good spirit her discourse was so heavenly her two great errands were to comfort Mrs. Bargrave in her affliction and to ask her forgiveness for her breach of friendship and with a pious discourse to encourage her so that after all to suppose that Mrs. Bargrave could hatch such an invention as this from Friday noon to Saturday noon supposing that she knew of Mrs. Veal's death the very first moment without jumbling circumstances and without any interest too she must be more witty, fortunate and wicked too than any indifferent person I dare say will allow I asked Mrs. Bargrave several times if she was sure she felt the gown she answered modestly if my senses be to be relied on I am sure of it I asked her if she heard a sound when she clapped her hand upon her knee she said she did not remember she did not remember she did but said she appeared to be as much a substance as I did who talked with her and I may said she be as soon persuaded that your apparition is talking to me now as that I did not really see her for I was under no manner of fear and received her as a friend and parted with her as such I would not said she give one farthing to make anyone believe it no interest in it nothing but trouble is entailed upon me for a long time for ought I know and had it not come to light by accident it would never have been made public but now she says she will make her own private use of it and keep herself out of the way as much as she can and so she has done since she says she had a gentleman who came 30 miles to her to hear the relation to a room full of people at the time several particular gentlemen have had the story from Mrs Bargrave's own mouth this thing has very much affected me and I am as well satisfied as I am of the best grounded matter of that and why we should dispute matter of that because we cannot solve things of which we can have no certain or demonstrative notions seems strange to me this authority and sincerity alone would have been undoubted in any other case End of The Apparition of Mrs Veil by Daniel Defoe For more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org Recording by Peter Tomlinson On the tepsum one derby day waiting at the station for the swell mob as I mentioned when we were talking about these things before we are ready at the station when there's races or an agricultural show or a chancellor sworn in for a university or Jenny Lind or anything of that sort and as the swell mob come down we send them back again train but some of the swell mob on the occasion of this derby that I refer to so far kidded us as to hire a horse and she start away from London by Whitechapel and miles round come into Epsom from the opposite direction and go to work right and left on the race course while we were waiting for them at the rail that however ain't the point of what I'm going to tell you while Witcher and me were waiting at the station there comes up one Mr. Tat a gentleman formally in the public line quite an amateur detective in his way and very much respected hello Charlie Wilde he says what are you doing here on the lookout for some of your old friends yes the old move Mr. Tat come along he says you and Witcher and have a glass of sherry we can't stir from the place says I till the next train comes in but after that we will with pleasure Mr. Tat waits and the train comes in and then Witcher and me go off with him to the hotel Mr. Tat he's got up quite regardless of expense for the occasion and in his shirt front there's a beautiful diamond prop cost him 15 or 20 pounds a very handsome pin indeed we drink our sherry at the bar and have had our three or four glasses when Witcher cries suddenly look out Mr. Wilde stand fast and a dash is made into the place by the swell mob four of them that have come down as I tell you and in a moment Mr. Tat's prop is gone Witcher he cuts them off at the door I lay about me as hard as I can Mr. Tat shows fight like a gooden and there we are all down together heads and heels knocking about on the floor of the bar perhaps you never see such a scene of confusion however we stick to our men Mr. Tat being as good as any officer and we take them all and carry them off to the station the station full of people who have been took on the course and it's a precious piece of work to get them secured however we do it at last and we search them but nothing's found upon them and they're locked up and a pretty state of heat we are in by that time I assure you I was very blank over it myself to think that the prop had been passed away and I said to Witcher when we'd all set him to rights and were cooling ourselves along with Mr. Tat we don't take much by this move anyway for nothing's found upon them and it's only the braggadocia after all what do you mean Mr. Wield says Witcher here's the diamond pin and in the palm of his hand there it was safe and sound why in the name of wonder says me and Mr. Tat in astonishment how did you come by that I'll tell you how I come by it says he I saw which of them took it and when we were all down on the floor together knocking about I just gave him a little touch on the back of his hand as I knew his pal was and he thought it was his pal and he gave it to me it was beautiful beautiful even that was hardly the best of the case for that chat was tried at the quarter sessions at Guilford you know what quarter sessions are sir well if you'll believe me while them slow justices were looking over the AXA parliament to see what they could do to him I'm blurred if you didn't cut out of the dock before their faces he cut out of the dock sir then and there swam across the river and got up into a tree to dry himself in the tree he was took an old woman having seen him climb up and Witcham's artful touch transported him end of the artful touch recording by Peter Tomlinson The Beggars from A Dreamer's Tale by Lord Duncidae this is a LibriVox recording all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org read by Dale Grossman I was walking down Piccadilly not long ago thinking of nursery rhymes and regretting old romance as I saw the shopkeepers walk by in their black frock coats and their black hats I thought of the old line in nursery annals the merchants of London they wear scarlet the streets were all so unromantic dreary nothing could be done for them I thought and then my thoughts were interrupted by barking dogs every dog in the street seemed to be barking every kind of dog not only the little ones but the big ones too they were all facing east toward the way I was coming by then I turned around to look and had this vision in Piccadilly on the opposite side of the houses just after you passed the cab rang plant men were coming down the street arrayed in marvellous cloaks all were salo of skin and swarthy of hair and most of them wore strange beards they were coming slowly and they walked with staves and their hands were out for alms all the beggars had come to town I would have given them a gold doubloon engraved with the towers of Castile but I had no such coin they did not seem the people to whom were fitting to offer the same coin as one tendered for the use of a taxi cab oh marvellous ill-made word surely the password somewhere of some evil order some of them wore purple cloaks with wide green borders and the border of green was a narrow strip with some and some wore cloaks of old and faded red and some wore violet cloaks and none wore black and they begged gracefully as gods might beg for souls I stood by a lamp post and they came up to it and one addressed it calling the lamp post brother and said oh lamp post our brother of the dark are there many wrecks by thee in the tides of the night sleep not brother sleep not there were many wrecks and it not for thee it was strange I had not thought of the majesty of a street lamp and his long-watching overdrifting men but he was not beneath the notice of these cloaked strangers then one murmured to the street art thou weary street yet a little longer they shall go up and down and keep thee clad with tar and wooden bricks be patient street in a while the earthquake cometh who are you the people said and where do you come from who may tell what we are they answered or whence we come and one turned toward the smoke-stained houses saying blessed be the houses because men dream therein then I perceived what I had never thought that all these staring houses were not alike but different one from another because they held different dreams and another turned to the tree that stood by the green park railing saying take comfort tree for the fields shall come again and all the while the ugly smoke went upwards the smoke that was stifling romance and blackened the birds this I thought they can neither praise nor bless and when they saw it they raised their hands toward it towards the thousand chimneys saying behold the smoke the old coal forest that have lain so long in dark and so long still are dancing now the sun forget not earth oh our brother and we wish the joy of the sun it had rained and a cheerless stream dropped down a dirty gutter it had come from heaps of refuse foul and forgotten it had gathered upon its way things that were derelict and went to somber drains unknown to man or the sun it was this sullen stream as much as all other causes that had made me say in my heart that the town was vile that beauty was dead in it and romance fled then this thing they blessed and one that wore a purple cloak with broad green border said brother be hopeful yet for thou shall surely come at last to the delectable sea and meet the heaving travel chips and rejoice by the aisles that have known the golden sun even thus they blessed the gutter and I felt no whim to mock and the people that went by in their black unseemly coats and their misshapen monstrous shiny hats the beggars also blessed and one of them said to one of these dark citizens oh twin of night himself with thy specks of white at wrists and neck like to night scattered stars how fearful thou dost veil with black, thy hid unguessed desires they are deep thoughts in thee that they will not frolic with color that they say no to purple and lovely green be gone thou hast wild fantasies that they must needs be tamed with black and terrible imaginings that they must be hidden thus hast thy soul dreams of the angels and of the walls of fairy that thou has guarded it so utterly lest it dazzle astonished eyes even so God hid the diamond deep down in miles of clay the wonder of thee is not married by mirth behold thou art very secret be wonderful be full of mystery silently the man and the black frotcoat passed on and I came to understand when the purple beggar had spoken that the dark citizen had trafficked perhaps with end that in his heart were strange and dumb ambitions that his dumbness was founded by solemn right on the roots of ancient tradition that it might be overcome one day by a cheer in the street or by someone singing a song and that when this shopman spoke there might come clefs in the world and people peering over the abyss then turning toward Green Park where as yet spring was not the beggars stretched out their hands and looked at the frozen grass and the yet unbutting trees they chanting altogether prophesied daffodils a motor omnibus came down the street nearly running over some of the dogs that were barking ferociously still it was sounding its horn noisily and the vision went then the end of The Beggars by Lord Dunsonay this recording is in the public domain Christmas Night with Satan by John Fox Jr this is a LibriVox recording all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org recording by April 6090 California United States of America all that is literature seeks to communicate power footnote to Quincy letters to a young man here the power communicated is that of sympathizing with God's lesser children the humanitarian story is a long step in advance of the fable it recognizes the true relations of the animal world to man and insists that it be dealt with righteously and sympathetically Christmas Night with Satan no night was this in Hades with solemn eye Dante for Satan was only a woolly little black dog no dog was ever more absurdly misnamed when Uncle Kerry first heard that name he asked gravely why, Denny where in, hey Uncle Kerry gulped slightly did you get him and Denny laughed merrily for she saw the fun of the question and shook her black curls he didn't come from that place distinctly Satan had not come from that place on the contrary he might be a miracle have dropped from some happy hunting ground for all the science he gave of having touched pitch in this or another sphere nothing human was ever born that was gentler, merrier, more trusting or more lovable than Satan that was why Uncle Kerry said again gravely that he could hardly tell Satan and his little mistress apart he rarely saw them apart and as both had black tangled hair and bright black eyes and a happy smile and the other with a jolly bark as they played all day like wind shake in shadows and each one every heart at first sight the likeness was really rather curious I've always believed that Satan made the spirit of Denny's house orthodox and severe though it was almost kindly toward his great namesake I know I have never been able since I knew little Satan to think old Satan as bad as I once painted him I'm sure the little dog had many pretty tricks that the old boy doubtless has never used in order to amuse his friends shut the door Sadie please Denny would say precisely as she would say it to Uncle Billy the butler and straight away Satan would launch himself at it bang he never would learn to close it softly for Satan liked that bang if you kept tossing a coin or marble in the air Satan would keep catching it and putting it back in your hand for another throw until you got tired then he would drop it on a piece of rag carpet snatch the carpet with his teeth throw the coin across the room and rush for it like mad until he got tired if you put a penny on his nose he would wait until you counted one two three then he would toss it up himself and catch thus perhaps Satan grew to love Maman right well but for another and better reason that he liked simply to throw it around as shall now be made plain a rubber ball with a hole in it was his favorite plaything and he would take it in his mouth and rush around the house like a child squeezing it to make it whistle when he got a new ball he would hide his old one away until the new one was the worst worn of the two and then he would bring back out the old one again if Denny gave him a nickel or a dime when they went downtown Satan would rush into a store rear up on the counter where the rubber balls were kept drop the coin and get a ball for himself thus Satan learned finance he began to hoard his pennies and one day Uncle Kerry found a pile of 17 under a corner of the carpet usually he carried to Denny all coins that he found in the street but he showed one day that he was going into the ball business for himself Uncle Kerry had given Denny a nickel for some candy and as usual Satan trotted down the street behind her as usual Satan stopped before the knick-knack shop Tom on Saddie said Denny Satan reared against the door as he always did and Denny said again Tom on Saddie as usual Satan dropped to his hunches but what was unusual he failed to bark now Denny had got a new ball for Satan only that morning so Denny stamped her foot I tell you to Tom on Saddie Satan never moved he looked at Denny as much as to say I've never disobeyed you before little mistress this time I have an excellent reason for what must seem to you very bad manners and being a gentleman with all Satan rose on his hunches and begged you're does a pig Saddie said Denny but with a sigh for the candy that was not to be Denny opened to the door and Satan to her wonder it rushed to the counter put his forepaws on it and dropped from his mouth a dime Satan had found that coin on the street he didn't bark for change nor beg he got it in his woolly little head somehow that in that store a coin meant a ball though never before nor afterward did he try to get a ball for a penny Satan slept in Uncle Kerry's room for of all people after Denny Satan loved Uncle Kerry best every day at noon he would go to an upstairs window and watch the cars come around the corner until a very tall square-shouldered young man swung to the ground and down Satan would scamper him at the gate if Uncle Kerry after supper and when Denny was in bed started out of the house still in his business clothes Satan would leap out before him knowing that he too might be allowed to go but if Uncle Kerry had put on black clothes that showed a big dazzling shirt front and picked up his high hat Satan would sit perfectly still and look disconsolate or as there were no parties or theaters for Denny so there were none for him but no matter how late it was when Uncle Kerry came home he always saw Satan's little black nose against the window pane and heard his bark of welcome after intelligence Satan's chief trait was loveliness nobody ever knew him to fight to snap at anything or to get angry after loveliness it was politeness if he wanted something to eat if he wanted Denny to go to bed if he wanted to get out of the door he would beg beg prettily on his haunches his little red tongue out and his funny eyes hanging loosely indeed it was just because Satan was so little less than human I suppose that old Satan began to be afraid he might have a soul so the wicked old namesake with the hoofs and horns laid a trap for little Satan and as he is apt to do he began laying it early long indeed before Christmas when Denny started to kindergarten that autumn Satan found that there was one place where he could never go like the lamb he could not go to school so while Denny was away Satan began to make friends he would bark how'd he do to every dog that passed his gate many stopped to rub noses with him through the fence even Hugo the mastiff and nearly all indeed except one strange looking dog that appeared every morning at precisely nine o'clock and took his stand on the corner there he would lie patiently until a funeral came along and then Satan would see him take his place at the head of the procession and thus he would march out to the cemetery and back again nobody knew where he came from nor where he went and Uncle Kerry called him the funeral dog and said he was doubtless looking for his dead master Satan even made friends with a scrawny little yellow dog that followed an old drunkard around a dog that when his master fell in the gutter would go and catch a policeman by the coat tail lead the officer to his helpless master and spend the night with him in jail by and by Satan began to slip out of the house at night and Uncle Billy said he reckoned Satan had Jean's de-club and late one night when he had not come in Uncle Billy told Uncle Kerry that it was powerful slippery and he reckoned that they'd better send a carriage after him in innocent remark that made Uncle Kerry send a boot after the old butler who fled chuckling down the stairs and left Uncle Kerry chuckling in his room Satan had Jean de-club the big club and no dog was too lowly in Satan's eyes for admission for no priest ever preached the brotherhood of man better than Satan lived it both with man and dog and thus he lived it that Christmas night to his sorrow Christmas Eve had been gloomy the gloomiest of Satan's life Uncle Kerry had gone to a neighboring town at noon Satan had followed him down to the station and when the train started Uncle Kerry had ordered him to go home Satan took his time about going home not knowing it was Christmas Eve he found strange things happening to dogs that day the truth was that policemen were shooting all dogs found that were without a collar and a license and every now and then a bang and a howl somewhere would stop Satan in his tracks at a little yellow house on the edge of town he saw half a dozen strange dogs in a kennel and every now and then a negro would lead a new one up to the house and deliver him to the big man at the door who in return would drop something into the negro's hand while Satan waited the old drunkard came along with his little dog at his heels paused before the door looked a moment at his faithful follower and went slowly on Satan little knew the old drunkard's temptation for in that yellow house kind-hearted people had offered fifteen cents for each dog brought to them without a license that they might mercifully put it to death and fifteen cents was the precise price for a drink of good whiskey just then there was another bang and another howl somewhere and Satan trotted home to meet a calamity dinny was gone her mother had taken her out in the country to grandmother deans to spend Christmas as was the family custom and Mrs. Dean would not wait any longer for Satan so she told Uncle Billy to bring him out after supper ain't you ashamed of yourself sir said the old butler keeping me from catching Christmas gifts today Uncle Billy was indignant for the negro's begin at four o'clock in the afternoon of Christmas Eve to slip around corners and jump from hiding places to shout Christmas gift, Christmas gift and the one who shouts first gets a gift no wonder it was gloomy for Satan Uncle Carrie, Dinny and all gone and not a soul but Uncle Billy in the big house every few minutes he would trot on his little black legs upstairs and downstairs looking for his mistress as dusk came on he would every now and then howl plaintively after begging his supper and while Uncle Billy was hitching up a horse in the stable Satan went out in the yard and lay with his nose between the close panels of the fence quite heartbroken when he saw his old friend Hugo the Mastiff trotting into the gaslight he began to bark his delight frantically the big mastiff stopped and nosed his sympathy through the fence for a moment and walked slowly on Satan frisking and barking along inside at the gate Hugo stopped and raising one huge paw playfully struck it the gate flew open and with a happy yelp Satan leaped into the street the noble Mastiff hesitated as though this were not quite regular he did not belong to the club and he didn't know that Satan had ever been away from home after dark in his life for a moment he seemed to wait for Dinny to call him back as she always did but this time there was no sound and Hugo walked majestically on with the absurd little Satan running in a circle about him on the way they met the funeral dog who glanced inquiringly at Satan shied from the Mastiff and trotted on on the next block the old drunkard yellow cur ran across the street and after interchanging the compliments of the season ran back after his staggering master as they approached the railroad track a strange dog joined them to whom Hugo paid no attention at the crossing another new acquaintance bounded toward them this one shepherd was quite friendly and he received Satan's advances with affable condescension then another came and another and little Satan said got quite confused they were a queer looking lot of curse and half breeds from the negro settlement at the edge of the woods and though Satan had little experience his instincts told him that all was not as it should be and had he been human he would have wondered very much how they had escaped the carnage that day uneasy around for Hugo but Hugo had disappeared once or twice Hugo had looked around for Satan and Satan paying no attention the Mastiff trotted on home in disgust just then a powerful yellow curse sprang out of the darkness over the railroad track and Satan sprang to meet him and so nearly had the life scared out of him by the snarl and flashing fangs of the newcomer that he hardly had the strength to shrink back behind his new friend the half-breed shepherd a strange thing happened the other dogs became suddenly quiet and every eye was on the yellow curve he sniffed the air once or twice giving two or three peculiar low growls and all those dogs except Satan lost the civilization of centuries and went back suddenly to the time when they were wolves and were looking for a leader the curve was lobo for that little pack and after a short parlay he lifted his nose high and started away without looking back while the other dogs silently trotted after him with the mystified yelp Satan ran after them the curve did not take the turnpike but jumped the fence into a field making his way by the rear of houses from which now and then another dog would slink out and silently join the band every one of them Satan nosed most friendly and to his great joy the funeral dog on the edge of town leaped into their midst ten minutes later the cure stopped in the midst of some woods to inspect his followers plainly he disapproved of Satan and Satan kept out of his way then he sprung into the turnpike and the band trotted down it under flying black clouds and shifting bands of brilliant moonlight once a buggy swept past them a familiar odor struck Satan's nose and he stopped for a moment to smell the horse's tracks and right he was too for out at her grandmother's dinny refused to be comforted going back to town after him snow was falling it was a great lark for Satan once or twice as he trotted along he had to bark his joy loud and each time the big cur gave him such a fierce growl that he feared thereafter to open his jaws but he was happy for all that to be running out into the night with such a lot of funny friends and not to know or care where he was going he got pretty tired presently for over hill and down hill they went at that unceasing trot trot trot Satan's tongue began to hang out once he stopped to rest but the loneliness frightened him and he ran on after them with his heart almost bursting he was about to lie right down and die when the curse stopped sniffed the air once or twice and with those same low growls led the marauders through a rail fence into the woods and lay quietly down how Satan loved that soft thick grass all snowy that it was and it was almost as good at his own bed at home and there they lay how long Satan never knew for he went to sleep and dreamed that he was after a rat in the barn at home and he yelped in his sleep which made the cur lift his big yellow head and show his fangs the moving of the half-breed shepherd and the funeral dog waked him at last and Satan got up half-crouching the cur was leading the way toward the dark still woods on top of the hill over which the star of Bethlehem was lowly sinking and under which lay a flock of the gentle creatures that seemed to have been almost sacred to the lord of the star they were in sore need of a watchful shepherd now Satan was stiff and chilled but he was rested and had had his sleep and he was just as ready for fun as he always was he didn't understand that sneaking why didn't they all jump and race and bark as he wanted to he couldn't see but he was too polite to do otherwise then as they did and so he sneaked after them as well as the rest, the hellish mission on which they were bent out of the woods they went across a little branch and there the big cur lay flat again in the grass a faint bleat came from the hillside beyond where Satan could see another woods and then another bleat and another and the cur began to creep again like a snake in the grass and the others crept too and little Satan crept though it was all a sad mystery to him again the cur lay still long enough for Satan to see curious fat white shapes above him and then with a blood curdling growl the big brute dashed forward oh there was fun in them after all Satan barked joyfully those were some new playmates those fat white hairy things up there and Satan was amazed when with frightened snorts they fled in every direction but this was a new game perhaps of which he knew nothing and as did the rest, so did Satan he picked out one of the white things and fled barking after it it was a little fellow that he was after but little as he was Satan might never had caught up had not the sheep got tangled in some brush Satan danced about him in mad glee giving him a playful nip at his wool and springing back to give him another nip and then away again plainly he was not going to bite back and when the sheep struggled itself tired and sank down in a heap Satan came close and licked him and as he was very warm and woolly he lay down and snuggled up against him for a while listening to the turmoil that was going on around him and as he listened he got frightened if this was a new game it was certainly a very peculiar one the wild rush, the bleeds of tear gasps of agony and the fiendish growls of attack and the sounds of ravenous gluttony with every hair bristling Satan rose in spring from the woods and stopped with a fierce tingling of the nerves that brought him horror and fascination and the white shapes lay still before him there was a great steaming red splotch on the snow and a strange odor in the air that made him dizzy but only for a moment another white shape rushed by a tawny streak followed and then in a patch of moonlight Satan saw the yellow kerb with his teeth fastened in the throat of his moaning playmate like lightning Satan sprang at the kerb who tossed him ten feet away and went back to his awful work again Satan leaped but just then a shout rose behind him and the kerb leaped too as though a bolt of lightning had crashed over him and no longer noticing Satan or sheep began to quiver with fright and slink away another shout rose from another direction another from another drive him into the barnyard was the cry now and then there was a fearful bang in a howl of death agony as some dog tried to break through the encircling men who yelled and cursed as they closed in on the trembling brutes that slunk together and crept on for it is said every sheep-killing dog knows his fate if caught and will make a little effort to escape with them went Satan through the barnyard gate where they huddled in a corner a shamed and terrified group a tall overseer stood at the gate ten of them he said grimly he had been on the lookout for just such a tragedy for there had recently been a sheep-killing raid on several farms in that neighborhood and for several nights he had had a lantern hung out on the edge of the woods to scare the dogs away but a drunken farmhand had neglected his duty that Christmas Eve yes sir and days just seventeen dead sheep out there said a negro look at the little one said a tall boy who looked like the overseer and Satan knew that he spoke of him go back to the house son said the overseer and tell your mother to give you a Christmas present I got for you yesterday with the glad whoop the boy dashed away and any moment dashed back with a brand new 32 Winchester in his hand the dark hour before dawn was just breaking on Christmas Day it was the hour when Satan usually rushed upstairs to see if his little mistress was asleep if he were only at home now and if he only had known how his little mistress was weeping for him amid her playthings and his two new balls and a brass studded collar with a silver plate on which was his name Satan Dean and if Dinny could have seen him now her heart would have broken for the tall boy raised his gun there was a jet of smoke a sharp clean crack and the funeral dog started on the right way at last toward his dead master another crack and the yellow cur leaped from the ground and fell kicking another crack and another and with each crack a dog tumbled until little Satan sat on his haunches amid the writhing pack alone his time has now come the wife always raised he heard up at the big house the cries of children the popping of firecrackers tooting of horns and whistles and loud shouts of Christmas gift, Christmas gift his little heart beat furiously perhaps he knew just what he was doing perhaps it was the accident of habit most likely Satan simply wanted to go home but when the gun rose Satan rose too on his haunches his tongue out his black eye steady in his funny little paws and begged the boy lowered the gun down sir Satan dropped immediately but when the gun was lifted again Satan rose again and again he begged down I tell you Satan dropped obediently this time Satan would not down but sat begging for his life the boy turned Papa I can't shoot that dog perhaps Satan had reached the stern old overseer's heart that it was Christmas at any rate he said gruffly we'll let him go come here sir Satan bounded toward the tall boy frisking and trustful and begged again go home sir Satan needed no second command without a sound he fled out the barnyard and as he swept under the front gate a little girl ran out of the front door of the big house and dashed down the steps shrieking Sadie, Sadie, oh Sadie on he fled across the crisp fields leaked the fence and struck the road liquidy split for home while Denny dropped sobbing in the snow hitch up a horse quick said Uncle Kerry rushing after Denny and taking her up in his arms ten minutes later Uncle Kerry and Denny both warmly bundled up were flying after Satan they never caught him until they reached the hill on the outskirts of town where was the kennel of the kind hearted people who were giving painless death to Satan's four-footed kind after they saw him stop and turned from the road there was divine providence in Satan's flight for one little dog that Christmas morning for Uncle Kerry saw the old drunkard staggering down the road without his little companion and a moment later both he and Denny saw Satan nosing a little yellow cur between the palings Uncle Kerry knew that little cur and while Denny was shrieking for Satan he was saying under his breath well I swear, I swear, I swear and while the big man who came to the door was putting Satan into Denny's arms he said sharply who brought that yellow dog here the man pointed to the old drunkard's figure turning a corner at the foot of the hill I thought so, I thought so he sold him to you for for a drink of whiskey the man whistled bring him out I'll pay his license so back went Satan and the little cur to Grandmother Deans and Denny cried when Uncle Kerry told her why he was taking the little cur along with his own hands, she put Satan's old collar on the little brute took him to the kitchen and fed him first of all then she went into the breakfast room Uncle Billy, she said severely didn't I tell you not to let Sadie out? yes, Miss Denny said the old butler didn't I tell you I was going to whoop you if you let Sadie out? yes, Miss Denny Miss Denny pulled forth from her Christmas treasures a toy riding whip and the old darky's eyes began to roll in mock terror sorry, Uncle Billy, but I did got to whoop you a little let Uncle Billy off, Denny this is Christmas a white said Denny and she turned to Satan in his shining new collar and innocent as a cherub Satan sat on the hearth begging for his breakfast end of Christmas night with Satan by John Fox Jr. the devil and Tom Walker by Washington Irving this is a LibriVox recording all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org recording by Thomas S. N. Ewing of Mount Angel, Oregon the devil and Tom Walker by Washington Irving a few miles from Boston in Massachusetts there is a deep inland winding several miles into the interior of the country from Charles Bay and terminating in a thickly wooded swamp or morass on one side of this inlet is a beautiful dark grove on the opposite side the land rises abruptly from the water's edge into a high ridge on which grow a few scattered oaks of a great age and immense size under one of these gigantic trees according to old stories there was a great amount of treasure buried by kid the pirate the inlet allowed a facility to bring the money in a boat secretly and at night to the very foot of the hill the elevation of the place permitted a good look out to be kept that no one was at hand while the remarkable trees form good landmarks by which the place might be easily found again the old stories add, moreover that the devil presided at the hiding of the money and shook it under his guardianship but this, it is well known he always does with buried treasure particularly when it has been ill-gotten be that as it may kid never returned to recover his wealth being shortly after seized at Boston sent out to England and there hanged for a pirate about the year 1727 just at the time that earthquakes were prevalent in New England when all sinners down upon their knees there lived near this place a meager miserly fellow of the name Tom Walker he had a wife as miserly as himself they were so miserly that they even conspired to cheat each other whatever the woman could lay hands on she hid away a hen could not cackle but she was on the alert to secure the new laid egg her husband was continually prying to protect her secret hordes and many in fierce were the conflicts that took place about what ought to have been common property they lived in a forlorned looking house that stood alone and had an air of starvation a few straggling saventrees emblems of sterility grew near it no smoke ever curled from his chimney no traveler stopped at his door a miserable horse whose ribs were as articulate as the bars of a gridiron stalked about a field where a thin carpet of moss scarcely covering the ragged beds of pudding-stone tantalized and balked his hunger and sometimes he would lean his head over the fence, look piteously at the passer-by and seemed to petition deliverance from this land of famine the house and its inmates had altogether a bad name Tom's wife was a tall, termigant nurse of temper, loud of tongue and strong of arm her voice was often heard in wordy warfare with her husband and his face sometimes showed signs that their conflicts were not altogether confined to words no one ventured, however, to interfere between them the lonely wayfarer shrank within himself at the horrid clamor and clapper clawing eyed the den of discordous scans and hurried on his way rejoicing if a bachelor in his celibacy one day the Tom Walker had been to a distant part of the neighborhood he took what he considered a shortcut homered through the swamp like most shortcuts it was an ill-chosen route the swamp was thickly grown with great gloomy pines and hemlocks some of them ninety feet high which made it dark at noon day and a retreat to all the owls of the neighborhood it was full of pits and quagmires partly covered with weeds and mosses where the green surface often betrayed the traveler into a gulf of black smothering mud there were also dark and stagnant pools the abodes of the tadpole the bullfrog and the water snake where the trunks of pines and hemlocks lay half drowned half rotting looking like sleeping in the mire Tom had long been picking his way cautiously through this treacherous forest stepping from tough to tough to rushes and routes which afforded precarious footholds among deep sloughs or pacing carefully like a cat along the prostrate trunks of trees startled now and then by the sudden screaming of the bittern or the quacking of a wild duck rising on the wing of a solitary pool at length he arrived at a firm piece of ground which ran like a peninsula into the deep bosom of the swamp it had been one of the strongholds of the Indians during their wars with the first colonists here they had thrown up a kind of fort which they had looked upon as almost impregnable and used as a place of refuge for their squaws and children nothing remained of the old Indian fort but a few embankments gradually sinking to the level of the surrounding earth and already overgrown in part by oaks and other forest trees the foliage of which formed a contrast to the dark pines and hemlocks of the swamps it was late in the dusk of evening when Tom Walker reached the old fort and he paused there a while to rest himself any one but he would have felt unwilling to linger in a lonely, melancholy place for the common people had a bad opinion of it from the stories handed down from the times of the Indian wars when it was asserted that the savages held incantations here and made sacrifices to the evil spirit Tom Walker however was not a man to be troubled with any fears of this kind he reposed himself for some time on the trunk of a fallen hemlock listening to the boating cry of the treetode and delving with his walking staff into a mound of black mold at his feet as he turned up to soil unconsciously his staff struck something hard he raked it out of the vegetable mold and low a cloven skull with an Indian tomahawk buried deep in it lay before him the rust on the weapon showed the time that it elapsed since the last death blow had been given it was a dreary memento of the fierce struggle that had taken place in the last foothold of the Indian warriors said Tom Walker as he gave it a kick to shake the dirt from it let the skull alone set a gruff voice Tom lifted up his eyes and beheld a great black man seated directly opposite him on the stump of a tree he was exceedingly surprised having neither heard nor seen any one approach and he was still more perplexed on observing as well as the gathering gloom would permit that the stranger was neither Negro nor Indian it is true he was dressed in a rude Indian garb and had a red belt or sash swathed around his body but his face was neither black nor copper color but swarthy and dingy and begrimed was soot as if he had been accustomed to toil among the fires and forges he had a shock of course a tear that stood out from his head in all directions and bore an axe on his shoulder he scowled for a moment at Tom with a pair of great red eyes what are you doing on my grounds to the black man with a hoarse growling voice your grounds at Tom with a sneer no more your grounds than mine they belonged to deacon Peabody deacon Peabody be damned said the stranger as I flatter myself to see if he does not look more to his own sins and less to those of his neighbors look yonder and see how deacon Peabody is faring Tom looked in the direction that the stranger pointed and beheld one of the great trees fair and flourishing without but rotten at the core and saw that it had been nearly hewn through so that the first high wind was likely to blow it down on the bark of the tree the name of deacon Peabody an eminent man who had waxed wealthy by driving shrewd bargains with the Indians he now looked around and found most of the tall trees marked with the name of some great man of the colony and all more or less scored by the axe the one of which he had been seated and which had evidently just been cut down bore the name of Crown Shield and he recollected a mighty rich man of the name who had made a Volcker display of wealth which it was whispered he had acquired by buccaneering he's just ready for burning said the black man with a growl of triumph you see I am likely to have a good stock of firewood for winter but what right have you said Tom to cut down deacon Peabody's temper the right of a prior claim said the other man belonged to me long before one of your white-faced race put foot upon the soil and pray who are you if I may be so bold said Tom oh I go by various names I am the wild huntsman in some countries the black miner in others in this neighborhood I am known by the name of the black woodsman I am he to whom the red man consecrated this spot and in honor of whom they now and then roasted a white man by way of sweet smelling sacrifice since the red man have been exterminated by you white savages I am use myself by presiding at the persecutions of Quakers and Anabaptists I am the great patron and prompter of slave dealers and grandmaster of the Salem witches the upshot of all of which are mistaken, said Tom Sturdley you are commonly called old scratch the same at your service replied the black man with a half civil nod such was the opening of this interview according to the old story though it has almost too familiar an error to be credited one would think that to meet with such a singular personage in this wild lonely place he had taken any man's nerves but Tom was a hard-minded fellow not easily daunted and he had lived so long with his termicant wife that he did not even fear the devil it is said that after this commencement they had a long and earnest conversation together as Tom returned homeward the black man told him of great sums of money buried by kid the pirate under the oak trees on the high ridge not far from the morass all of these were under his command and protected by his power so that none could find them but such as propitiated his favor these he offered a place within Tom Walker's reach having conceived and a special kindness for him but they were to be had only on certain conditions what these conditions were they easily surmised though Tom never disclosed them publicly they must have been very hard for he required some time to think of them and he was not a man to stick at trifles when money was in view when he had reached the edge of the swamp the stranger paused what proof have I that all you have been telling me is true said Tom there is my signature said the black man pressing his finger on Tom's forehead so saying he turned off among the thickets of the swamp and seemed, as Tom said to go down down down into the earth until nothing but his head and shoulders could be seen and so on until he totally disappeared when Tom reached home he found a black print of a finger burned as it were into his forehead which nothing could obliterate the first news his wife had to tell him was the sudden death of Absalom Crown and Shield the rich buccaneer it was announced in the papers with the usual flourish that a great man had fallen in Israel Tom recollected the tree which his black friend had just hewn down and which was ready for burning let the free booter Tom who cares he now felt convinced that all he had heard and seen was no illusion he was not prone to let his wife into his confidence but as this was an uneasy secret he willingly shared it with her all her avarice was awakened at the mention of this hidden gold and she urged her husband to comply with the black man's terms and secure what would make them wealthy life however Tom might have felt disposed to sell himself to the devil he was determined not to do so to oblige his wife so he flatly refused out of the mere spirit of contradiction many embittered with the quarrels they had on the subject but the more she talked the more resolute was Tom not to be damned to bleach her at length she determined to drive the count and if she succeeded to keep all the gain to herself being of the same fearless temper as her husband she set off for the old Indian fort toward the close of summer's day she was many hours absent when she came back she was reserved and sullen in her replies she spoke something of a black man whom she had met about twilight hewing at the root tall tree he was sulky however and would not come to terms she was to go again with the propitiary offering but what it was she forbore to say the next evening she sit out again for the swamp with her apron heavily laden Tom waited and waited for her but in vain midnight came but she did not make an appearance turned but still she did not come Tom now grew uneasy for her safety especially as he found she had carried in her apron the silver teapot and spoons and every portable article of value another night elapsed another morning came but no wife in a word she was never heard of more what was her real fate nobody knows the consequence of so many pretending to know it is one of those facts which have become confounded by a variety of historians some asserted that she lost her way among the tangled mazes of the swamp and sank into some pit or slew others more uncharitable hinted that she had eloped with the household booty and made off to some other province while others surmised that the tempter had decoyed her into a small quagmire on the top of which her hat was found lying in confirmation of this it was said a great black man with an ax on his shoulder was seen late that very evening coming out of the swamp carrying a bundle tied in a check apron with an air of surly triumph the most current and probable story however observes that Tom Walker grew so anxious about the fate of his wife and his property that he set out at length to seek them both at the Indian Fort during a long summer's afternoon he searched about the gloomy place but no wife was to be seen he called her name repeatedly but she was nowhere to be heard the bitter and alone responded to his voice as he flew screaming by or the bullfrog croaked hopefully from a neighbouring pool at length it is said just in the brown hour of twilight when the owls began to hoot and the bats to flit about his attention was attracted by the clamour of carrying crows hovering about a cypress tree he looked up and beheld a bundle tied in a check apron and hanging in the branches of the tree with a great vulture perched hard by as of keeping watch upon it he leaped with joy for he recognised his wife's apron and proposed it to contain the household valuables let us get hold of the property said he consolingly to himself and we will endeavour to do without the woman as he scrambled up the tree the vultures spread its wide wings and sailed off screaming into the deep shadows of the forest Tom seized the checked apron but woeful sight found nothing but a heart such, according to this most authentic old story was all that was to be found of Tom's wife she had probably attempted to deal with the black man as she had been accustomed to deal with her husband but though a female scold is generally considered a match for the devil yet in this instance she appears to have had the worst of it she must have died game however for it is said Tom noticed many prints of cloven feet deeply stamped about the tree and found handfuls of hair that looked as if they had been plucked from the coarse black shock of the woodsmen Tom knew his wife's prowess by experience he shrugged his shoulders as he looked at the signs of the fierce clapper clawing E. Gadd said he to himself old scratch must have had a tough time of it Tom consoled himself for the loss of his property with the loss of his wife for he was a man of fortitude he even felt something like gratitude toward the black woodsmen who he considered had done him a kindness he sought therefore to cultivate a further acquaintance with him but for some time without success the old black legs played shy for whatever people may think he is not always to be had for the calling he knows how to play his cards when pretty sure of his game at length it is said when Delay had whetted Tom's eagerness to the quick and prepared him to agree to anything rather than not gain the promised treasure he met the black man one evening in his usual woodsmen dress with his axe on his shoulder sauntering along the swamp and humming a tune he affected to receive Tom's advances with great indifference made brief replies and went on humming his tune by degree however Tom brought him to business and they began to haggle over terms on which the former was to have the pirate's treasure there was one condition would need not be mentioned being generally understood in all cases were the devil grants favors but there were others about which though of less importance he was flexibly obstinate he insisted that the money found through his means should be employed in his service he proposed therefore that Tom should employ it in the black traffic that is to say that he should fit out a slave ship this however Tom resolutely refused he was bad enough in all conscience but the devil himself could not tempt him to serve slave trader Tom so squeamish on this point he did not insist upon it but proposed instead that he should turn usurer the devil being extremely anxious for the increase of usurers looking upon them as his peculiar people to this no objections were made for it was just Tom's taste you shall open a broker's shop in Boston next month said the black man tomorrow if you wish said Tom Walker you shall lend money at two percent a month he gad I'll charge four, replied Tom Walker you shall extort bonds foreclose mortgages drive the merchants to bankruptcy I'll drive them to the devil cried Tom Walker you are the usurer for my money said black legs with the light when will you want the rhino for a night done said the devil done said Tom Walker so they shook hands and struck a bargain a few days time saw Tom Walker seated behind his desk in a counting house in Boston his reputation for a ready moneyed man who would lend money out for a good consideration soon spread abroad everybody remembers the time of Governor Belcher it was a time of paper credit the country had been deluged with government bills the famous land bank had been established there had been a rage for speculating the people had run mad with schemes for new settlements for building cities in the wilderness landjarbers went about with maps of grants and townships and the El Dorados lying nobody knew where but which everybody was ready to purchase in a word the great speculating fever which breaks out every now and then in the country had raged to an alarming degree and everybody was dreaming of making sudden fortunes from nothing as usual the fever had subsided the dream had gone off and the imaginary fortunes with it the patients were left in doleful plight and the whole country resounded with the consequence cry of times at this propitious time of public distress did Tom Walker set up as usurer in Boston his door was soon thronged by customers the needy and adventurous the gambling speculator the dreaming land-jobber the thriftless tradesman the merchant with crack credit in short everyone driven to raise money by desperate means hurried to Tom Walker thus Tom was the universal friend to the needy and acted like a friend in need that is to say he always exacted good pay and security in proportion to the distress of the applicant was the hardness of the terms he accumulated bonds and mortgages gradually squeezed his customer closer and closer and sent them at length from his door in this way he made money hand over hand became rich and a mighty man and exalted his cocked hat upon change he built himself, as usual a vast house out of ostentation but left the greater part of it unfinished and unfornished out of parsimony he even drew up a carriage in the fullness of his vainglory though he nearly starved the horse he drew it and as the ungreased wheels groaned and screeched on the axel trees you would have thought you heard the soles of the poor debtors he was squeezing as Tom waxed old however he grew thoughtful having secured the good things of the world he began to feel anxious about those of the next he thought with regret at the bargain he had made with his black friend and said his wits to work out of the conditions he became therefore all of a sudden a violent churchgoer he prayed loudly and strenuously as if heaven were to be taken by force of lungs indeed one might always tell when he had sinned most during the week by the clamor of his Sunday devotion the quiet Christians who had been modestly instead fastly traveling Zion word with self-reproach had seen themselves so suddenly outstripped in their career by this new-made convert Tom was as rigid and religious as in money matters he was a stern supervisor and censurer of his neighbors and seemed to think every sin entered up to their account became a credit on his own side of the page even talked of the expediency of reviving the persecution of the Baptist in a word Tom's zeal became as notorious as his riches still in spite of this strenuous attention and forms Tom had a lurking dread that the devil after all would have his do that he might not be taken unawares therefore it is said he always carried a small Bible in his coat pocket he also had a great folio Bible on his desk and would frequently be found reading it when people called on business on such occasions he would lay his green spectacles in the book to mark the place while he turned round to drive some serious bargain some say that Tom grew a little crack-brained in his old days and that fencing his end approaching he had his horse new-shod, saddle, bridal and buried with his feet up because he supposed that at the last day of the world would be turned upside down in which case he should find his horse standing ready for mounting and he was determined at the worst to give his old friend a run for it this however is probably a mere old wives fable if he really did take such a precaution it was totally superfluous at least so says the authentic old legend which closes the story in the following manner one hot summer afternoon in the dog days just as a terrible black thunder gust was coming up Tom sat in his counting house in his white linen cap and the India silk morning gown he was on the point of foreclosing a mortgage by which he would complete the ruin of an unlucky land speculator for whom he had professed the greatest friendship the poor land-jobber begged him to grant a few months indulgence Tom had grown testy and irritated and refused another delay my family will be ruined and brought upon perish said the land-jobber charity begins at home replied Tom I must take care of myself in these hard times you have made so much money out of me said the speculator Tom lost his patience the devil take me said he if I have made a farthing just then there were three loud knocks on the street door he stepped out to see who was there a black man was holding a black horse which nade and stamped with impatience Tom your con for said the black fellow gruffly Tom shrank back but too late he had left his little Bible at the bottom of his coat pocket his big Bible on the desk buried under the mortgage he was about to foreclose never was sinner taken more unawares the black man whisked him like a child into the saddle gave the horse the lash and away he galloped with Tom on his back in the midst of the thunderstorm the clerk struck their pens behind their ears and stared after him from the windows away went Tom Walker his white cap bobbing up and down his morning gown fluttering in the wind and his steed striking fire out of the pavement at every bound when the clerks turned to look for the black man he had disappeared Tom Walker never returned foreclosed the mortgage a countryman who lived on the border of the swamp reported that in the height of this thunder gust he had heard a great clattering of hoods and howling along the road and running to the window cut sight of a figure such as I have described on a horse that galloped like a mad across the fields over the hills and down into the black hemlock swamp toward the old Indian fort and that shortly afterwards thunderbolt falling in that direction seemed to set the whole forest in a blaze the good people of Austin shook their heads and shrugged their shoulders but had been so much accustomed to witches and goblins and tricks of the devil in all kinds of shapes from the first settlement of the colony that they were not so much horror struck as might have been expected trustees were appointed to take charge of Tom's effects there was nothing however to administer upon on searching his coffers all his bonds and mortgages were reduced to cinders filled in silver his iron chest was filled with chips and shavings two skeletons lay in his stable instead of two half-starved horses and the very next day his great house took fire and was burned to the ground such was the end of Tom Walker and his ill-gotten gain let all gripping money brokers lay this story to heart the truth of it is not to be doubted the very hole under the oak trees whence he dug kids money is to be seen to this day and the neighbouring swamp and old Indian fort are often haunted in stormy nights by a figure on horseback in morning gown and white cap which is doubtless the troubled spirit of the usurer in fact the story has resolved itself into a proverb and is the origin of that popular saying throughout New England of the devil and Tom Walker end of the devil and Tom Walker by Washington Irving Bothman Experiments with Old Cheese by Bill Nye our recent article in a dairy paper is entitled Experiments with Old Cheese we have experimented some on the venerable cheese too one plan is to administer chloroform first then perform the operation while the cheese is under its influence this renders the experiment entirely painless and at the same time it is more apt to keep quiet after the operation the cheese must be driven a few miles in the open air which will do away with the effects of the chloroform end of Experiments with Old Cheese by Bill Nye