Plymouth advertiser. [volume] (Plymouth, Ohio) 1853-1988, 1854-03-04

THE DEVIL AND TOM WALKER,
BY WASHINGTON IRVING.

A few miles from Boston, in Massachu-
sets, there is doop inlet indlng sever.
al miles into the country, from Charles
Bay, and terminating in thickly wooden
swamp or morass. On one side in this
inlet is q beautiful dark grove, and OF the
opposite side the land rises abruptly
from the waters edge into high ridge,
on which grow few scattered oaks of
great age and immense size. 1t was un-
der one of these gigantic trees, according
to old stories, that Kidd, the pirate, buried
his treasures. The inlet allows facili.
ty to bring the money in boat, secretly.
at night, to the very foot of the hill. The
elevation of the place permit.eda 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
be easily found again. The old stories
add moreover, that the devil presided a,
the hiding of the money, and took it un.
der his guardianship: but this, it is well
known he always does with buried trea
sures, particularly wien it had been ill.,
gotten. Be this as it may, Kid never
returned to recover his wealth beng
shortly after seized at Boston, seat ,o
Eng lAud and there hanged tor piracy,
Abou' the year l727 just a, the time
when earthquakes were SO prevalent in
New England, and shook many tall sin.
ners down on their knees, ,her4 lived
near this place a mcagre, misery fellow,
by the name of Tom Walker. lie had a
wife as misery as himself, and they were
so misery they conspired to cheat each
other. Whatever the woman could iav
her hands on, she hid away; hen could
not cackle but she was on the aler, 10 Sc
cure new | id egg. Her husband was
continually prying about to detect her Sc.
cret boards; many and fierce were the
conflicts that took place about what Nigh,
have been common property. They liv-
ed in forlorn house, that stood alone,
and had an air of starvation. A few
struggling savine trees, embIems of ster.
ility, grew near it,. no smoke ever curled
from its chimney; no traveller ever STOP
ped at its door. A miserable horse, whose
ribs were as articulate as the gridiron,
stalked about field where thin carpet
of moss, scarcely covering the rugged bed
of pudding stone, tantalized and bulked
his hunger; and sometimes he would lean
his head over the fence, look pitiously at
the pGsser by, and seem to petition his
deiverance from the land of famine
The house and its inmates had altogether
bad name. Toms wife was tall ter.
magen', fierce Of temper, loud of tongue.
and strong of arm Her voice was often
heard in wordy warfare with her husband
and his face showed signs that the con.
flicts were not confined to words. Nc
one however. ventured to interfere be.
tween them; the lonely wayfarer shranA
within himself at the horrid clomor anc
clapper-clawing, eyed the den of disorde,
askance and hurried on his way, if o
bachelor, rejoicing at his celibacy.
One day Tom Walker had been to q
distant part Of the neighborhood, he took
what he considered a short cut home
ward, through swamp. Like most shor
GUS, It was an i'll chosen route. TIE
swamp was thickly grown with gloomy
pines and hemlocks, some Of them ninet,
feet high, which made It dark at moor