The Opelousas journal. [volume] (Opelousas, La.) 1868-1878, 1874-11-06
Tinlmay McJimpsey's ResUar~
rectfOM.
From the Youths Companion.l

A." IL AOOIA . NOAPdLl&Ou.l
White Chapel Graveyard was Il dreary
pIace--dOubly drenry at night, when
you saw its ghOstly stones aud the gray
walls of the old church shape thenlsel-
YES suddenly out of the darkness by the
lonely road. A nearly forgotten gen
ration was gathered into it. The town
had a new cemetery and q new church
at the crossroads; 80 no one now yer
slabsin White Capped Wood
choppers passed It quickly in the dusk
of evening, and tales of supernatural
staikings there at midnight We're not
wanting to invest the place with the
usual witcilery of dread. The prevail
ing style Of monument in White Cha.
pei Graveyard was q hollow brick OBJ
long, built two Or three feet high around
a grave, and rooted with a slab OF slate
or marble. Ben Bolts "sweet Alice,
whose hair was 80 brown" must have
lain under such a tomb.
Dismal as the place was old Sally
liked it, and often made herself "Wal-
lows" III the deep, grass, where she
would lie haskiEg in the sun whole at
ternOons, Sally was a crazy woman who
nOminally lived at the poor house but
actually lived with all the families in
the neighborhoood. She was harmless
and fond of children, so the farmers
wives kindly let her gOand come among
them.
Sally crept into this graveyard one
summer afternoon. She had wandered
restly among the tombs, STOPPING over
Il and other, and muttering to herself
as if in search of some friend whose
name she had lost, till neal the middle
OF the enclosure she came to a mOnu-
ment larger than the rest under which a
pioneer preacher had long ago been
laid away. Some of the bricks of the
old structure were sunken or Crumbled
S o that the slab roof lifted up. Beside,
a great crack ran through nearly the
whole breadth of it hut you might have
read on it nevertheless, how John Lud-
low, born in such ii year and such a
place, came to the wildS of Ohio at a
certain date and ministered in the name
of the Lord to the pioneers thirty odd
years." and how he finally died full of
peace. A piOus text was tackled on to
this history, and the whole was embel-
church" blowing "a horn, from which
steamed the announcement
thine Sh-
all be no more"
Finding she could move one piece of
the slab, Sally worked it aside, peerei
under it, and finally, Obeying some crazy
impulse, squeezed herself inside the old
Sepulcllre and lay down. The day was
bright and the sun had made her dark
bed warm. Perhaps the poor creature
liked to fancy herself resting from all
her woes at last. She went to sleep and
slept like a child, above the ashes of
the man who lived and died for human
ity.
And now comes Jimmy McJimpsey'S
share of the story. Jimmy was Il you'll,
who dotted on practical jokes. He was
d long shaft like lad, with considerable
waist and neck, and ankle to spare. At
the period of his life where our narrative
finds him Jimmy M~cJimpsey thought
more of his personal amusement than
of his personal beauty, so that his extra
longitude did not trouble him at all.
His fathers farm lay near White Chapel,
and he often looked over his pillow and
the fence at the deserted church and
gloomy tOmbs with queer emotions ; for
he was by no means far from supersti-
ton himself. Now it 80 happened that
the very Saturday afternoon when
crazy Sally went to sleep 10 sweetly un-
der Elder Ludlow's broken tablet, Tim
my McJimpSey was m%editating an ex-
plot of his own in the old burial ground.
1t had struck him that he could make
lots of fun for himself by playing a ghost
ly trick on two girls who would pass
through the graveyard in the evening.
These girls were sisters, whose family
lived in a cabin up the woOd-slOpe, some
distance beyond the McJimpsey farm.
They worked all the week in neighbour
ing farm houses, and joined each other
Saturday night to go home together.
Their way was shorter through the
graveyard, and for this reason they q n
orally chose it and custom and com
.any made them less unwilling to cross
ground which they would otherwise
have summed. They never passed the
ancient church, however, without a fit
IF silence and once inside the sad en-
they always clasped hands closer,
and hurried from fence to fence, re-
their cheerful talk only when
the ranks of trees behind them concealed
the city of the dead.
On this particular Saturday night the
came down the road, chatting of
their simple affairs, and glad at the
of Sunday rest with father,
mother and the cabin troop of juniors,
ill they reached old white Chapel.
Here, as usual, they suddenly grew
mute, and drawing nearer together,
they turned their feet into the church.
yard. Silently they sped forward. brush !
.ng through the%ong grass, and CLAN
about them in the darkness when
Up rose from old ParsOn Ludl0w's tomb
I tall, eerie form of appalling aspect.
md white as snow! For an instant the
DOOR girls stood still, frozen by mortal
ear. The gigantic form stretched it's
.wO sheeted arms abroad, and a hollow
1oice cried out
Awake! awake! and come to judg-
nent!"
Immediately, responsive to this call
form rose from the grave!
Old Sally heard the summons above
ler head. and sprang up to obeyit. Her
felt the suppleness of new youth.
The leaped ont of the old brick tomb and
towards her terrified invokpr.
Here / am, Lord !" cried Sally, dar-
ing eager hands after him.
Jimmy McJimpsey's legs swaddled
hOugh they were in sheets, and knock
ng together under him, had neverthe-
ess q good deal of activity in them, and
that moment he did not fail TO use it
II to the utmost advantage. He h0wled
nd beloved after the girls, who were
eeing at full speed, and piteously i'm
lored their protection. Away went the
oor creatures, half terrified to death,
nd on flew Jimmy behind them, more
than they, with crazy Sally
lose to his heels. Over the fence and
trough the woods raced the mad pro-
ession, non knowing what they fled
rom, and but half knowing where they
'ent, till, n after another, all dashed
1tO the hillside cabin and stood in the
1idst of the astonished family painting,