Myths and Legends of Our Own Land — CompleteSkinner, Charles M. (Charles Montgomery)
General
Myths and Legends of Our Own Land — Complete
Skinner, Charles M. (Charles Montgomery)
Folklore -- United States
Near Gallipolis, Ohio, there stood within a few years an old house of
four rooms that had been occupied by Herman Deluse. He lived there alone,
and, though his farming was of the crudest sort, he never appeared to
lack for anything. The people had an idea that the place was under ban,
and it was more than suspected that its occupant had been a pirate. In
fact, he called his place the Isle of Pines, after a buccaneers'
rendezvous in the West Indies, and made no attempt to conceal the strange
plunder and curious weapons that he had brought home with him, but of
money he never appeared to have much at once. When it came his time to
die he ended his life alone, so far as any knew--at least, his body was
found in his bed, without trace of violence or disorder. It was buried
and the public administrator took charge of the estate, locking up the
house until possible relatives should come to claim it, and the rustic
jury found that Deluse “came to his death by visitation of God.”
It was but a few nights after this that the Rev. Henry Galbraith returned
from a visit of a month to Cincinnati and reached his home after a night
of boisterous storm. The snow was so deep and the roads so blocked with
windfalls that he put up his horse in Gallipolis and started for his
house on foot.
“But where did you pass the night?” inquired his wife, after the
greetings were over. “With old Deluse in the Isle of Pines,” he answered.
“I saw a light moving about the house, and rapped. No one came; so, as I
was freezing, I forced open the door, built a fire, and lay down in my
coat before it. Old Deluse came in presently and I apologized, but he
paid no attention to me. He seemed to be walking in his sleep and to be
searching for something. All night long I could hear his footsteps about
the house, in pauses of the storm.”
The clergyman's wife and son looked at each other, and a friend who was
present--a lawyer, named Maren--remarked, “You did not know that Deluse
was dead and buried?” The clergyman was speechless with amazement. “You
have been dreaming,” said the lawyer. “Still, if you like, we will go
there to-night and investigate.”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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