St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1892-02-04
A TALE OF DISMAL SWAMP.

The place had always been ''ha mt
ed" if one might credit what was said
in 1.-THE quarters" Indeed there was
scarcely a slave on the plantation
but had startling experience to re-
late of the ghosts that haunted
Graysville, one of the most famous
old plantatio ofLouisiana. Every
slave that ever trod Southern soil is
afraid of graveyards, and the Grays-
vile graveyard was indeed a solemn
old place, and awesome enough to
those minds superstitiously inclined.
1t was not more than hundred
yards from the back doorstep, and in
full range of the little windows of the
room that had been the sitting-room
of all my grandmothers for unnum-
bered generations.
But it was not the graveyard
which made one afraid of Graysville.
Beyond, more than a mile, and cut
off by one of those still, treacherous
1agoons so common to Louisiana,
stretched for several miles low, wet
strip of timber-land known as Dis
NAL Swamp.
The place was full of uncanny as
sociations-as the hiding-place for
runa way slaves, the hot-bed of ma
1aria and all manner of ills and aches.
At length the browning i'll was put
upon it when it became the abode of
the Graysville ghost.
True, these stories of the ghost new
er, for long while at least, got be-
yond the quarters; but they were re-
hearsed night after night with start
ling and blood-curdling variatio
1t was said that nothing ever came
out of the swamp alive-even the
cattle, wandering within its deadly
limits, were either stung to death by
the poisonous reptiles there, or else
broke their necks among the tangles
of bamboo and rattan, crOss-vine
and swinging MOSES of the swamp.
was always mOrtally afraid OF
the swamp, and no human power
could have persuaded me beyond the
separating water of the lagoon.
Of the ghosts l had no fear what
ever; but stories of the runaway
slaves, the poisonous atmosphere,
and the unfortunate attic had filled
my mind with a horror of the place
which to this day have never been
able to shake off.
My first recollection Of it was the
time one of the men came running in
from the field, painting with fear and
declaring that something like a big
black shadow had run out of the
swamp and chased him home.
This something" proved to be
Crazy Dick an old slave who had
disappeared months before and was
supposed to be dead somewhere in
the impenetrable depths of the Dis
NAL Swamp. He had, indeed, been
there all the while, living upon wild
plums and berries which grew there
his hiding-place and died there, his
dead body having been discovered by
seeing the buzzards circling about ii
on the further bank of the lagoon
Literally torn to pieces by the
witches they said in the cabins O
the superstitious blacks, who repu
dated the existence of the briars fol
the more thrilling idea of witches.
From that time forward the ghost
of Crazy Dick was said to wander
about the swamp, and could be seer
almost any night, "all in white,
crossing the lagoon and the rice6eld
and coming on across the lawn tC
the graveyard, where he disappeared
just at daylight" in his own gravt
in the far corner of the lot. loves
todes the great house"
At night my dreams were full of it
/ had wandered among all thos'
mysterious depths, trampled upor
the nests of the copperhead and ad
der, breathed the soft perfume of TIL
wild magnolia, and brushed aside
IS it trailed against my forehead, tn
rank red blossoms of the poisonou
oak and the deadly ivy. In m,
dreams l had dipped my feet into tn
still, sleek wa tiers of the lagoon, AM
followed the path made by the ghOs
OF Crazy Dick across the rice field
and the family graveyard, and los
myself in the depths of its dull, dens
shadows
One morning the very climax c
wonder was reached when my faith
er, returning home just before da
from meeting of the rice planter
at a village some fifteen miles distant
himself encountered the Graysvil
ghost returning from its midnigh
ramble through Dismal Swamp.
Strange to say, when my fathe
was rehearsing the story at tn
breakfast table, seemed to hav
knownit all before; and had he LEI