Holmes County Republican. [volume] (Millersburg, Holmes Co., O. [Ohio]) 1870-1895, 1870-12-08
From the Atlantic Monthly.
The Ghost in the Captain
Brown House.
BY II. B. STOWE.

"Now, Sam, tell us certain true
is there any such things as ghosts?'
"Be there ghosts?" said Sam, i'm
mediately translating into his yer
nacular grammar; ''wal, now, tha
ares jist the question, We see."
"Well, grandma thinks there are
and Aunt Lois thinks it's all non
sense. Why, Aunt Lois don't ever
believe the stories in Cotton Math
er's Magnolia"
"Wanter knowT' said Sam, witt
a tone CT slow, languid meditation
We were sitting on a bank of the
Charles River fishing. The soft
melancholy red of evening was fad
ing off in streaks on the CLASSY wa.
er, and the houses of Oldtown were
beginning to loom through the
gloom, solemn and ghostly. There
are times and tones and moods OF
nature that make all the vulgar
daily real seem shadowy, vague, and
supernatural, as if the outlines OF
this hard material present were
fading into the invisible and un-
known. So Oldtown with its elm
trees, its great square white houses
its meeting house and tavern and
blacksmith's shop and mill, which,
at high noon, seem as real and as
commonplace as possible, at this
hour of the evening were dreamy
and solemn. They rose up blurred
indistinct, dark; here and there
winking candles sent long lines OF
light through the shadows, and little
drops of unforeseen rain rippled
the sheeny darkness of the water.
"Wal, you see, boys, in them
things it's jist as well to mind yer
granny. There's a consid'able sig ght
O. gumption in grandmas. You
look at the folks that's allus tellin'
you what they don't believe,-they
don't believe this and they don't be-
lieve that,-and what sort O folks
is they! Why, like yer Aunt Lois,
sort O. stringy and dry. There amt
no 'sorption got out O not believin'
nothin'.
Lord a massy, we don't know
nothin' bout them things. We
hain't been there, and can't say that
there amt no ghosts and sich, can
we now?"
We agreed to that fact, and sat a
little closer to Sam in the gathering
gloom.
"Tell US about the Cap'n Brown
house, Sam"
" Ye didn't never go over to the
Cap'n Brown house?'
No, we had not that advantage.
"Wal, yer see, Cap'n Brown he
made all his money to sea, in furrin
parts, and then come here to Old
town to settle down.
"No, there amt no knowin' bout
these ere old ship-masters,, where
they is been or what they's been a
doin', or how they get their money.
Ask me no questions and I'll tell We
no lies, is bout the best philosophy
for them. Wal, it didn't do no good
to ask Cap'n Brown questions too
close, cause you didn't git no salts
faction. Nobody rightly knew bout
who his folks was, or where they
come from; and eff body asked
him, he used to say that the very
fust he know'd bout himself he was
a young man walkin' the streets in
London.
"But, yer see, boys, he he'd money,
and that's about all folks wanter
know when a man comes to settle
down. And he bought that are place
and built that are house. He built
it all sea--cap'n fashion, SOS to feel
as much at home as he could. The
parlor was like a ships cabin. The
table and chairs was fastened down
TO the floor, and the closets was
made with holes to set the castors,
and the decanters, and bottles in,
jist's they be at sea; and there was
stanchions to hold ON by; and they
say that blowy nights the Cap'n
used to fire up pretty well with his
grog, till he had about all he could
carry, and then he'd set and hold on,
and hear the wind blow, and kind
o feel out to sea right there to hum.
There wasn't no Mis- Cap'n Brown,
and there didn't seem likely to be
none. And whether there ever had
been one, nobody know'd. He had
an old black Guinea nigger woman
named Quassia, that did his work.
She was shaped pretty much like one
o these ere great crookneck-
squashes. She want no great
beauty, l can tell you, and she used
to wear a gret red turban and a yel-
Ter short gown and red petticoat, and
a gret string O. gold beads round her
neck, and gret big gold hoops in
her ears, made right in the middle
of Africa among the heather there.
For all she was black, she thought q
heap O herself, and was consid'ab
sort of predominative over the
Cap'n. Lordy massy, boys, it is
allus so. Get man and woman
together,-any sort O woman you're
a mind to, don't care who it is,-
and one way or another she gets the
rule over him, and he jist has to
train to her fife. Some does it one
way and some does it another: some