Constitutional Whig. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1824-1832, 1824-11-23
From Washington irring's .NecJYork. :
THE DEVIL AND TOM WALKER.

l
and Terminating in a thick wooded swamp, or
morass. On one side of this inlet is beautiful
dark grove; on the opposite side the land rises
abruptly from the waters edge into high
ridge on which grow few scattered oaks OF
great age aud immense size. 1t was under enc
oil these gigantic trees, according to old stories,
that Kidd the pirate buried his treasure. The
inlet allowed facility to bring the money in
boat secretly and at night 10 the very foot of the
hill. The elevation of the place permitted a
good lookout to be kept that no one was at
hand while the remarkable trees formed good
land, marks by which the place might easily be
| found again. The old stories add, moreover.
that the devil presided at the hiding of the mo-
ney, anti took it under his guardianship; but
this It Is well known, he always does with b,,-
ried treasure, particularly when it has been IN
gotten. BE that as it may, Kidd never return
ed to recover his wealth. being shortly after
seized at Boston, sent out to England, and there
| hanged for pirate.
About che year 1927, just at the time when
earthquakes were prevalent in New England,
and shook many tall sinners down upon their
| knees there lived itr this place meagrc mister
| iy fellow by the name of Tom Walker. He
had wife as miserIy as himself they were SO
| Iniserly that they even coDspred to cheat each
other Whatever the woman could lay hands
ON she Ind away; hen could not cackle but she
was on the alert to secure the new laid egg
Her husband was continually prying about to-
detect her secret boards, and many and fierce
were the conflicts that took place about what
ought to have been common property.-They
lived IN forlorn looking house that stood alone
and had an air of staryation.-A few Struggling
sayin trees, cmbcms of sterility, grew near if.
| no smoke ever cu.led from its chimney: no ira
weller stopped at IFS door. a miserable horse.
whose r1bs were as articulate as the bars of
grtdiron, staiked about field where thin
carpet OF moss, scarcely covering the ragged
beds of pudding stone, tantalized and baked
his hunger; and sometimes he would lean his
head over the fence; look pitiously at the pas
ser oy, ana seem to petition deliverance from
inns land oil FAMINE. The house and its inmates
| had altogether a bad name.-Tom,s wife was a
talltern,agaHt -farce of temper, loud of tongue
and strong of arm. Her voice was often heard
an woody warfare with her husband; and his face
sometimes showed signs that their conflicts were
not confined TO words. No one venturcd, how
ever, to interfere between them; the lonely
waytarer shrunk within himself at the horrid
Glamour and clapper clawing; eyed the den of
discom askaace, and hurrid on his way reioic-
ing, If a bachelor, in his celbacy.
One day that Tom Walker had been TO a dis
tant part of the neighborIood, he took what he
considered a short cut homcwards through, the,
swamp. Like most short cuts it was an iii chm
sen route. The swamp thiciSly grown with
great gioomy pines and hcrnlocks, some Of them
ninety feet high; which made it dark at noon
day, and retreat for all tie owls Gf the neiph-
oorhood. Ii wis foil Of pits and euspani, es
partly covered with weeds and mosses,-where
the green surface often betrayed the traveller
INTO gull OF black sInothering mud; there were
also dark and stagnant pools, the abodes of the
tad pole, the bull frog, and the water snake
and where trunks of pines and hemiocks lav
half drowned, half rottng, looking like aIira.
tors, sleeping in the ryiire.
Tom had long been picking his way cautious
iy through this treacherous foresS stepping from
tuft to tuft of rushcs and roots which afforded
precarious footholds among deem slou.cI,s: or
pacing carefully, like cat along the PROSTATE
trunks of trees;-startei now and tlIen be the
sudden screaming Of the bittern or the o,acl,-
ing of a wild duck rising the wing from a SOL
itary pool htlength he arrived at a piece of
firm ground which ran ont like a peninsula into
the deep bosom of the swamp. 1t had been ore
of the strong holds of the Indians during their
wars with the first colonists.-Here they had
thrown up kind of fort which they had looked
upon as almost imPrcgnable, and had used as a
place of refuge for their squaws and children.
Nothing remained of the Indian fort but few
embankments gradually sinking TO the level of
the surrounding earth, and already overgrown
IN part by oaks and other forest trees, the foil
age of which formed contrast TO the dark
pines and hemlocl1s of the swamp.
II was late in the dusk Of evening tIiat Tom
Walker reached thc old fort, and he paused
there for while 10 rest himself. Any one but
he would have felt unwilling 10 linger in this
lonely, melancholy place, for the common peo-
pie had a bad opinion of from the stories hand
ed down from the time of the Indian wars;
when it was asserted chat the savages held in
carnations there and made sacrifices to the evil
spirit. Tom Walker. however, was not a man
TO be troubled with any fears of the kind.
He reposcd himself for some time on the
trunk OF a fallen hemlock, listening 10 tie boiling
cry of the tree toad and dciving with his walk
ing staff into mound Of black mould at his feet
As he turned up the soil uncoasciously, his staff
struck against something hard. He raxed il
out of the vegetable mould, and To-. a coven
skull with an Indian torpahawls buried deep in
it, lay before him. The rust of the weapon
showed the time that had elapsed since this
death blow lad been given. Ii was drcary
rnemento of the fierce struggle that had taken
place IN this last GoothoId Of the Indian warriors.
"Hump," said Tom Walker, as he gave the
skull kick TO shake the dirt from it,
'Iet that skull alouci" said cruif' voice.
Tom lifted up his eyes and bclIeId great
black man, seated directly opposite him on tie
stump of a tree. lie was exceedingly surprised,
having neither seen nor heard any one APP
proach, and he was still more perplexcd on OBJ
serving, as well as the gathering gloom would
permit, that the strangerwas neither negro nor
Indian. IL is true, he was dressed in rude
half indian garb, and had a red belt or sash
sw athed round his body, but his face was Bei.
ther black nor copper color. but swarthy and
dingy and begrined with SCOT, as if he had been
accustomed TO toll among fires and forres.
lie had shock Of coarse black hair, that stood
out from his head in all directions; and bore an
axe on his shoulder.
Tic scovgled for moment at Tom with pair