THE FOLK-LORE SOCIETY’S QUEER STORIES. The Folk-Lore Society which became a part of the Village Improvement Society in West Roxbury, used to have Story-Telling Nights, and on these occasions elderly people were invited to attend and relate old village stories. The Folk-Lore story is a very interesting department of Folk-Lore; and of all places in America, the towns that follow the windings of the Charles River, are rich in quaint old tales. The Brook Farm-House, now the German Orphan Asylum, sent into the world a coterie of magic story-tellers. The old houses around the Dedham Woods all have their legends. West Roxbury and the Newtons are haunted places. Among the popular subjects of this antique story-telling, are “The Old New England Ghost Story,” and “Funny Tales of Old Independence Days.” There were several of these stories that were particularly popular. One of them was the reading of that masterpiece of old wonder-books, known as “The Devil and Tom Walker,” a warning to usurers, speculators, and all over-reaching people. [Illustration: GOVERNMENT BUILDING.] Stories of “Lord Timothy Dexter” and old New England Ghost Stories were among the interesting narratives that had entertained the society. We give two of these,—BLINGO THE BLACKSMITH, OR LORD TIMOTHY DEXTER’S POET and THE DARBY RING. [Illustration: THE AGRICULTURAL BUILDING.] BLINGO, THE BLACKSMITH. Tommy Topp sat sunning himself in the wide open door of Blingo’s blacksmith shop, when a cloud of dust appeared in the highway; a chariot presently broke into view from the dusty cloud, and four black horses stopped under the golden elms that shaded a rustic watering-trough near the rural smithy. This was a strange event. People did not ride in “chariots” in Massachusetts during the last century, as a rule, and never in a chariot like this. [Illustration: MACMONNIES (COLUMBIAN) FOUNTAIN.] The vehicle was not of the classic Roman pattern, such as swept under the triumphal arches in the purple days of the emperors; nor, indeed, a state coach like the disjointed affairs of the days of good Queen Anne. But it was as lively and picturesque in color as a band carriage of to-day, and it was ornamented with a very curious coat-of-arms, the design of which was mysterious, and probably was intended to be so. Tommy Topp started up with eyes wide with wonder. Blingo dropped an iron whiffle-tree that he was making, and ran to the door, shading his eyes with his sooty hand. [Illustration: THE PERISTYLE.] The horses having drank at the watering-trough, the liveried coachman, or charioteer, drove them toward the door, exclaiming, “Whoa!” in an imperial tone, as a footman alighted, in a glory of shining buttons.