The British Press; or, Morning Literary Advertiser.
London, England, 1824-08-27 00:00:00

THE DEFIL AND TOM WALKER.

Ire extrart the following humorius story from Mr,
if obington Irving's new work, published yesterday, called
t`.• ul a Truerllrr:
fcw miles from Boston, in Massachusetts, there is a
111 jrkt winding several milea into the interior of the
Lena from Charles Bay, and terminating in a thickly
reo,o sa imp or morass. On one side of this inlet is a
dark grcive; on !lie opposite side the laud rises
Draptly from the water's edge into a high ridge, on which
r, a lov scattered oaks of great age and itamense size.
Vier one of these gigantic trees, according to old stories,
were iris a great amount of treasure buried by Kidd the
bit!,. The itilet
atlasalowed a facility to bring the money in a
use and ght 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 formed
good land-marks by which the place might easily he
bed again. The old stories add, moreover, that the devil
resiard at the Itidlng of the moncv, and took it under his
gordairship; but this it is well known he always does
with buried treason!, particularly when it has le:en
gate. Ile that as it may, Kidd never returned to recover
his wealth • being shortly after seised at Boston, sent out
to England, and there hanged for a pirate.
About the year 1747, [just at the tune that eatthonakes
v:rc prevalent in New England, and shook many tall sin-
ET, down upon their knees, there lived near this plavi a
meagre, miserly fellow of the. name of Tom Walker. He
awl a wife as miserly as himself ; they were so miserly
that :Ley even conspired to cheat each other. Whatever the
eainan eould lay hands on, she hid away ; a hen could Malt
Nekle lint site was on the alt rt to secure the new-laid egg,
Btr husband was continually prying about to detett belt
secret hoards, and many and fierce were the conflicts that
took place about what ought to have been common pro-
petty. They lived in a forlorn-looking horse that stood
alone, and had an air of starvation. A few straggling
savin-trees, emblems of sterility, grew near it; no smoke
eve: curled from its chimney ; no traveller stopped at its
dad. A miserable horse, whose ribs were as articulate as
the liars err gridiron, stalked about a field where a thin
carpet of moss scarcely coveting the ragged beds of pud-
ding.mope, tantalised and balked his hunger; and some-
timrs he would lean his head over the fence, look piteously
at the passer-by, and seem to petision deliverance from this
lard of famine.
The house and its intimates hail altogether a had name.
Tout's wife was a tall termagant, fierce of temper, loud of
tope and strong of arm. Her voice was often heard
wady warfare with her husband ; and his face sometimes
bowed signs that their conflicts were not confined to words.
No one ventured, however, to interfere between them.
The lonely wayfarer shrunk within himself at the horrid
clamour and clapper-clawing; eyed the den of discord
askance, and hurried on his way, rejoicing, if a bachelor,
la his celibacy.
One day that Tom Walker had been to a distant part of
the neighbourhood, lie took what he considered a short cut
hoinewaids, through the swamp. Like most short cuts, it
was an ill-chosen route. The swamp was thickly grown
with great gloomy pines and hemlocks, soine of them ninety
ket high, which made it dark at noonday, and a retreat for
all the owls of the neighbourhood. It was full of pits and
quagmires, partly covered with weeds and mosses, where
the green surface often bet-ayed the traveller into a gulf of
biseg, smothering mud ; there were also dark and stagnant
pooh, the abodes of the tadpole, the bull-frog, and the
watasnake ; where the trunks of pines and hemlocks lay
half drowned, half rotting, looking like alligators aleeping
is the mire.

Torn hal long been picking his way cautiously through
this treacherous forest ; stepping from tuft to tuft of rushes
and roots, which afforded precarious footholds among deep
sloughs; or pacing carefully, like a cat, along the pros-
trate 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 from some solitary pool. At length he
arrived at a piece of firm ground, which ran out like a
peninsula into the deep bosom of the swamp. It had
been one of the stung holds 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 im-
prepable, and had used u • 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 alreaftelufveergrown.in
arr=eau eaut abet fagot uses, the of witch
a contraat to the dart pines and hemlocks of the
swamp.
It was late in the dusk of evening when Tom Walker
reached the old fort, and he paused therefore awhile to rest
himself. Any one but be would tutu felt unwilling to
linger in this lonely, melancholy place, for the common
people had a bad opinien of it, from the stones handed
down from the time of the Indian wan; 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 the kind. He reposed himself for sonic
titneon the trunk of a fallen hemlock, listening to the bod-
ing cry of the tree toad, and delving with his walking staff'
into a mound of black mould at his feet. As he turned up
the soil unconsciously, his stall' struck against something
hard. Ile raked it out of the vegetable mould, and lo ! a
doven scull, with an Indian tomahawk buried deep in it,
lay before him. The rust on the weapon showed the time
that bad elapsed since this death-blow had been given. It
wu a dreary memento of the fierce struggle that had taken
place in this last foot:hold of the Indian warriors.
__

. -
" !" said Tom Walker, u he gave the scull a
lick t) shake the dirt from it.

"Let that scull alone!" said a gruff voice. Tom lifted
sp bis eyes, and beheld a great black man seated directly
opposite him, on the stump of a tree. lie was exceedingly
surprised, haring neither heard nor seen any one approach ;
lad he was still more perplexed on observing, u well u
the gathering gloom would permit, that the stranger was
wither negro nor Indian. It is true be was dressed
IA t rude half Indian garb, and had a red belt or sash
swathed round his body; but his face was neither black
IC! copper-colour, but swarthy and dingy, and begrimed
►ith soot, as if he had been accustomed to toil among fires'
sal forges. Ile had a shock of coarse black hair, that stood
out from hishead in all directions; and bore an axe on his

lieseoaled for a moment at Tom with a pair of great red
e!eL__

" What are you doing on my grounds?" said the black
awn, with a hoarse Frowling voice.
"Your groonds!' said Tom with a sneer, "no more
70ar grounds than mine; they belong to Deacon Peabody."
Doom Peabody be d—d," said the stranger, ' as
I darter myself he will be, if he does not look more to his
own sins and lee to those of his neighbours. Look yonder,
aid seehow Deacon Peabody is faring."
Torn looked in the direction that he stranger pointed,
*lir:held one of the great trees, fair and flourishing with-
,rat, but rotten at the core, and saw that it had been nearly
lel2 through, an that the first high wind was likely to
blow itdown. On the bark of the tree was scored the
lwar of Deacon Peabody, an eminent man, who had waxed
y by driving shrewd bargains with the Indians.
tiow looked round, and found moat of the tll trees
ked with the n..ine of some great man of the colony,
Mdl more or less scored by the axe. The one on which
,helwil bete seated, and which bail evidently just ben
"o down, bore the name of Crowninshield; and he re-
wdreted a mighty rich man of that name, who made a
'lleardisplay of wealth, which it was whispered be had
INuard by buccaneering.
ileajust ready for burning!" said the black man, with
D 1 yawl of triumph. " You see I am likely to have a good
Imrk of fire-wood for wir.ter."
L' mut what right have you," said Tom, " to cut down
'"111 Peabody % timber ?'
The right of a prior claim," said the other. "This
land belong,ed to me long before one, of your •rhile-
"•° rare put a foot upon the soil."
And Pray, who are you, if I may be so bold ?" said Tom.
mane' bvarious names. lam the wild huntsman
countries; thew
black miller in others. In this
l`Rhbwarhood I am known by the name of the black woods-
" r,j"4 am he to whom the rcd men consecrated this spot,
,m.hortour of whom they now and then roasted a white
by war of sweet-smelling sacrifice. Since the red
I" 'awe been exterminated by you white savages, I amuse
41"'`'l 1)7 presiding at the persecutions of quakerand
1C,454,:1a: I am the great patron and prompter of slave
1.
• d the mavter of te Sa whes."
t %Yalu:it g
ofrand all which is,h that, lem
if I itc
mistake not,