Image from the Biodiversity Heritage Library.
Contributed by Yale Peabody Museum of Natural History.
| www.biodiversitylibrary.org
Transcription
And there's [illegible] He is big
and hearty and loves to send thrills
down other folk's backs. How would
they know he was strong he-man
stuff if he didn't tell them so? He
gets the children about him and tells
them ghost stories, blood curdling
ghost stories. "And a long bony arm
without body or even the shadow of
body reached out of the darkness and
clutched him. He couldn't push it off.
His hand slipped right through it, yet
it clutched with icy fingers on his
throat. Slowly, slowly."
"Bill," calls mother half laughing,
half protesting, "Don't frighten those
children with your awful stories. You
know there's not a word of truth in
them. They're awful."
"He isn't scaring us, mom. We
aren't afraid. Go on, Uncle Bill. What
happened then? Did he choke him or
what?"
And Uncle Bill pleased by the ap-
plause goes on with his thrilling tale,
right on to the frozen end. The chil-
dren draw a long breath and stretch
themselves and draw closer to the
fireside. The youngest boy gets close
to his mother in the circle of lamp
light. "No, I'm not scared, mother.
Ghosts don't really happen, do they?"
And that night he cannot sleep and
AUNT HET
BY ROBERT QUILLEN