The Milan exchange. (Milan, Gibson County, Tenn.) 1874-1978, 1882-03-18
THE THREE KNIVES.
A story of the English North Count,


I" So you want me to tell you story
about ghost, do you, children?n said
Parson Goodharte, looking up from his
book, with queer little twinkle in the
corner of his dark-gray eyes, as his
three nephews and two nieces came
trooping around the snug armchair in
which he was sitting by the fire. "Well,
that won't be very easy because | new
er saw a ghost myself, and I've never
met any one else who had, either. But
once knew man who thought he had
seen .one-or felt one, rather-and a
very serious matter it was for him, as
you shall hear
"When | first came here as a Young
curate, long before any of you young
folks were born, every man, woman and
child in the village believed as firmly in
ghosts, witches and all that nonsense,
as they believed that the sun shone or
that the wind blew.
1--WE seen strapping fellow six feet
high, big and strong enough to knock a
horse down, 60 half mile out of his
way rather than pass after dark spot
where highwayman had been hanged
in chains; and more than one old wom-
an was scared into fits by a white COW
suddenly getting up from behind a
hedge, as she was going home through
the fields in the twilight.
GAS for the church-yard, all the mon
ey in the Cottonborough Bank wouldn't
have tempted any of our village folk to
60 through it after nightfall. AMI GER
tainly it was a dismal place-there's no
denying it.
"Our pretty little new church over
the way wasn't built then, and the old
church stood right out at the very end
of the village just where Farmer Thomp-
sons big barn is now.
1t was a grim old building, all of
dark-gray stone turned almost black by
the weather, and fast crumbling away.
The tower was one mass of dark ivy,
and the church-yard itself was full of
gloomy frs and expresses, growing to-
gether in thick clumps, which harbored
owls and bats without number; and
when the moon glimmered through the
clouds upon stormy night, making the
white tomb-stones whittier and the black
trees blacker than ever, it certainly did
look as ghostly a place as l ever saw in
my life.
"But as if all this was not enough,
the spot had legend attached to it, and
very grim one, too, Just at the fur
Their end of the church-yards the ground
fell steeply away to a dark hollow,
through which ran a stream.
This hollow bore the pleasant name
of Dead Mans Gully and the tradi-
tons of the county recorded that a
great battle had been fought in this
place in the days of King Alfred, and
that a number of wounded Danes, who
had crawled to the stream to drink, had
been cruelty slaughtered by the SaXons,
despite the entreaties of good monk,
who tried hard to save them.
Ever since that day-so ran the le-
gend-on the anniversary of the massa-
ere, any one who passed the spot after
nightfall would hear the shouts of the
slayers, and shrieks of the slain, min
Cling with the hoarse rush of the water,
and would see-if the moon were bright
enough to show it to him-the stream
running as red as blood
$50, what with this nice story (Which
every soul in the district knew by heart)
and what with the gloominess of the
| place itself, the village people were as
shy of it as if it had been a fever hos
pital.
"Ot course, was very much put out
/ at seeing my parishioners making such
. geese of themselves; but what was to be
! donep
Talking to them would only have
made them worse, for they would have
told me that they, who had lived in the
/ country all their lives, must know more
about it than l, who had only just come
| there.
" At first tried to shame them out Of
their terrors by constantly going about
the haunted spots myself, by night a;
well as by day.
"But it was not bit of use, for they
were accustomed to consider it part o.
a clergyman business to deal Will
ghosts, ana held that l ought to be {
match for any amount of them, if die
my work properly, .
$50 the only thing / could do was Il
leave their beliefs alone, and trust t.
time to wear them out.
1t was toward the end of my frs
year in the village, and the nights wer