Litchfield enquirer., 1870-12-01
THE GHOST IN THE CAP'N BR0Wl Ia s..s3 aE. ..J HOUSE. F EaiTa

sG Efs{ 7 4a5 f4f ShsE ss9 ] Llt-a1g1 THE GHOST IN THE CAP'N BROWN 3, a,e.I ai.#J HOUSE. te baiTa { BY MRS. HARRIET BEEeHERa sTeWE $ ss-s,{- skssslse a4s ----sa8r slGaa 5@t9+1as
 Nov, Sam, tell us certain. true ist there any such things as ghosts?' fss! seg9y aesff Be there ghosts? said Sam, immediate ly translating into his vernacaiar gram mar; wal, now, that ares jist the qnes- ! ton. ye see.' aeo a ta8-t
 Well, grandma thinks there, are. and Aunt Lois thinks it's all nonsense. Why, Aunt Lois don't believe the stories in Got ton Mather,s Magnolia, as4 IT
 Wanter know, said Sam, with tone of slow. languid meditation. s,I s4sf Is.as ts We were sitting on the bank of the Charles river fishing. The soft melancholy red of evening was fading off in streaks on the glassy water. and the houses of Old i town were beginning to loom through tue gloom, solemn aud ghosty. There are times and tones and moods of nature that ] make all the vulgar, daily real seem shad- owy. vague, and supernatural, US If the outlines of this hard material present were fading into the invisible unknown. 9 So Oldtown with it's elm-trees, its great square white houses, it's meeting-hOuse and tav- l ern and blacksmith's $ shop and mill, which, at high noon, seem as real and as common place as possible, at this hour of the even ing 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. n Fai e@s3 l.
 Wal, you see. boys, in them there things it's jist as we'll to mind yer granny. There's consia 'able sight of gumption in grandmas. You look at the folks that's q sli.ls taili,, ,snn zrl.a. .a - lieye that-and what sort O. folks is they Why, like yer Aunt Lois, sort O stringy and dry. There ain't no 'sorption got out O not believin' nothin ''-t'' @7H s'-'s1ss
 sLord massy, we don't know nothin' bout them things. We hain' t been there, and can't say that there ain't no ghosts and sich, can we nowS
 We agreed to the fact, and sat little closer to Sam in the gathering gloom.
 'Tell us about the Cap'n Brown house,
 'Ye did n't never go over the Oap'n Brown house?' ....,.,- -ss
 No. we had not that advantage.
 Wal, yer see, Cap'n Brown he made all his money to sea, in turin parts, and then come here to Oldtown to settle down.
 Now, there ain't no kncwin' bout these old ship-masters, where they's ben or what they's ben a doin'. or how they get their money. Ask me no questions and I'll tell ye no lies, is bout the best philosophy for them. Wal, it did n't do no good to ask Cap'n Brown questions too close, cause you did n't git no satisfaction. Nobody rightly knew 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 8 young man walkin' the streets of London. .a. '.-'4~
 But yer see, boys, he had 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, so as to feel as much at home as he could. The parlor was like a ships cabin. The table and chairs were fastened down to the floor, and the closets were made with holes to set the castors, and the decanters, and bot ties in, jists 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 Lunl. There was n't no Mis- Cap'n Brown, and there did mt seem likely to be none. ' And whether there ever had been one, nobody know'd. a He had an old black Gninea nigger woman named Quassia, that oid his work. She was shaped pretty much like one O these 'ere great crook necked squash es. She wa'n't no great beauty, I can tell you, aud she used to wear Q great red tur- ban and yalier short gown and red pet- ticoat, and great stringro gold beads ronnd her neck, and great big gold hoops in her ears, made right in the middle of Africa among the heathen there. For all she was black. she thought heap of her sell, and was consid'able sort of predomi. native over the Cap'n. Lordy massy, boys, it's allus so. Get g man aud woman to. gether-any sort O woman you're mind to, dout care who t is-and one way Or another she gets the rule over him, and he has to train to her fife. Some does it one way ana some does it another; some does 1t by Jawin', and some does it by kissin I, and some does 1t by faculty and contri. vance; but one way or another they allers does it. Old Cap'n Brown was 2 good stout stocky kind Q John Bull sort Q fell .SW3 'ssN @ 9oO1 5N0S0 v SSeEltSs 0u0 "A lers kep' the best in them are cubboards O his'n; but, fust and last things in his house went pretty much as old Quassia said. sq7
 . Folks got to kind O respectin Quassia. She come to meetin' Sunday regular, and sot all fixed up in red and yaller and green, with glass beads and what not, lookin' for all the world like one O them ugly Indian idols; but she. was, wal-behaved, as any Christian. She was Q master hand at cook. ing. Her bread and biscuits couldn't be beat. and no could Tt her pies, and there want no such pound-caka as she made nowhere. Wal, this 'ere story Tina goin' totell you was told me by Cinthy PendIea ton. There ain't moro respectable gal. old or young than Uinthy nowheres. She lives over to Sherbqfn now, and hear tell shes sot up Inanty-makin' bisness, but then she used to1 do tailorin' in Oldtown.
 She was member e the church, and . good Christian as ever waa. Wal, l,sye see,' Q1assia she got Ointhy to come up and spend . week to the Cap n Brown house, a
 doin' tailorin' and . fxin' over his close: t want long toward the fust of Mafch. Cinthy she got by the 6reiin the front par
 Tor with her geese and her press board and her work. for there wasn't no company callin. and the snow was ldrifted four feet tdeep right across the front door; SO, there want much danger os any h0f7v cornin, in