Then she tells me. The night of the day after we camped there, her and
Miss Hampton was out fur a walk. We didn't have any show that night.
They passed right by our camp, and they seen us there by the fire, all
three of us. But they was in the road in the dark, and we was all in the
light, so none of the three of us seen them. Miss Hampton was kind of
scared of us, first glance, fur she gasped and grabbed holt of Martha's
arm all of a sudden so tight she pinched it. Which it was very natcheral
that she would be startled, coming across three strange men all of a
sudden at night around a turn in the road. They went along home, and
Martha went inside and lighted a lamp, but Miss Hampton lingered on the
porch fur a minute. Jest as she lit the lamp Martha hearn another little
gasp, or kind of sigh, from Miss Hampton out there on the porch. Then
they was the sound of her falling down. Martha ran out with the lamp,
and she was laying there. She had fainted and keeled over. Martha said
jest in the minute she had left her alone on the porch was when Miss
Hampton must of seen the ghost. Martha brung her to, and she was looking
puzzled and wild-like both to oncet. Martha asts her what is the matter.
“Nothing,” she says, rubbing her fingers over her forehead in a helpless
kind of way, “nothing.”
“You look like you had seen a ghost,” Martha tells her.
Miss Hampton looks at Martha awful funny, and then she says mebby she
_has_ seen a ghost, and goes along upstairs to bed. And since then she
ain't been out of the house. She tells Martha it is a sick headache, but
Martha says she knows it ain't. She thinks she is scared of something.
“Scared?” I says. “She wouldn't see no more ghosts in the daytime.”
Martha says how do I know she wouldn't? She knows a lot about ghosts of
all kinds, Martha does.
Horses and dogs can see them easier than humans, even in the daytime,
and it makes their hair stand up when they do. But some humans that have
the gift can see them in the daytime like an animal. And Martha asts me
how can I tell but Miss Hampton is like that?
“Well, then,” I says, “she must be a witch. And if she is a witch why is
she scared of them a-tall?”
But Martha says if you have second sight you don't need to be a witch to
see them in the daytime.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account