Spirit of the age. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1849-1865, 1853-06-15
a Profitahla Ghoat

| had been fishing in the Old South BAY.
sald Long Island subscriber the other day;
with one of those crafty fishermen to whom nd
days, on which the water may be tempted, ars
CONSIDERED days tor bad luck :, dies iafagss
He was one of those Iona-necked cam-eatsrs.
whose stomach rose and fell with the tides which
made them plentiful or left them scarce. Az
we were coming in in oar boat after success
tnl toray upon bass and sheepShead, we fell %
mediate upon various matters which were
neither piscatory nor akin to it. As Boswell
would say Of the colloquies of the Great Levi
athan: : We spoke of Ghosts You say ghosts
have been seen on Long Island, but you never
seen'em, and don't believe in 'em y ?'sWal, yes;
| can't say do believe in'em, but I guess
Ishould believe in'enl, if l bad such luck in
gettin' sight onem as man did down in
Jerusalem South good many years ago. The
way of it was this: You see it was dreadful
cold winters night, about nine o'clock, Chow
the Old South Bay roared that night) when
there was sleigh with three fellows into it,
druv up under the hoss shed at the tavern
Two on'em got ont and as they got out they
said to t'other one. Jim, list you sit there
and mind the horses while we 90 IN and gGt
snmethin' warmin:' we'll be with you again
| They went into the tavern, but they didn't
come right out again by a jugfhll, though
when they did come out they had more than
ha!--'Fore they come out. though, Bill the
/ oser said to the man sittin in the sleigh, Eff
| was yo1 | wouldn't sit there in the cold as
long as you're a-sittin', blamed if | would why
don't yOu 60 in and get sothin' tool The
man never said nothin', though in answer, but
sot up as straight as an Indian. Bill, who waa
lookn' after some other hosses under the same
shed, alter while said somethin' more 10 him.
but he was as still as 'yster. Pooty soon
Bill said to himself, 'Goy-blaned ef don't
think he's f:iz to death, or else he'd say some
| thin So he went up to him and shook him;
and sure, enough, he found him fruz as stiff as
a stake and when lie come to hold up his
lantern to look, he found him propped up on
each side on the seat the lines was wound
round his hands he was muffled up with COM
forters about his face-and he was stone deadI
Bill wast't nobody's fool, if he did attend
to hosses. He smelt the whole thing out to-
once.-Two or three graves had been robbed
about there only little while before, and the
two chaps in the tavern was two body-gathe7erS
that had been paid by doctors to get bodies for
'em, for to cut up, and they'd been and robbed
new grave that night ;and here wasthe corpse
wrapped up and propped up in that Sleigh SO
thatfolks wouldn't suspicion nothing about it
Now what d'you 'spose Bill does? He goes
and takes, Bill does, that body out of the sleigh
(for he wasn't afraid of the very devil strips
off the clothes and puts il into the oat-bin iu-
side, and fastens the door: then he puts on the
mans cloths hisself, and he goes and gets into
, the sleigh with 'em onto him, puts the lines
round his hands, props hissef up, and waits
for the body-snatchers to come out from tho
barroom.-Pooty soon out they come, got in
on the wide seat along side of him, and druv
off. There Bill sits stiff us rail but 'twasRt
long fore one o. the chaps says to rother,
r feeifn'o' BilPs leg little, why, the body's
, gettin' warm. Feel O. that legv T"other one
put down his hand and felt o. Bills legs: and
then he started back and said: 'It'sa fact, by
thunder! it is warm, and no mistakev Twas
Bll's time, now so he turned his head round
tTsdff like and straight, WITHOUT moving his body
3 and says he, Wa7117S~Mal, guess you'd b
: WARM of you you'd been took out 6f as hot
a place only little while ago, as was!
, Bill says it wasn't half second, 'forA- -Dota
of them chaps had pitched head first out o. that
sleigh, and n'ither OH 'em stopped runnn' till
they was clean out O. sight Then Ire turned
right square round and druv back to the tavern.
There he told the whole story and he made
good speck out o the thing too, in the end;
for you see, the friends Of the man that was
, dug up guy him fifty dollars for saving of the
body, and as nobody ever came back after the
sleigh and horses, he sold 'em to Captain
b, down on H-Piains, for .nigh
upon three hundred dollars Twas fust rate
team-s0they said. That's the most profitable
and about the only ghost that ever heerd tell
on! Good many folks talks about seein 'ern.
but expect they never did-not r'ally.'-
Harper's Neac Monthly Magazias