The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1893-11-30
THE OLD COACH DOG +;
Or, The Phantom Inn.
A Thanksgiving Story.
BY HEzEKIAH BUTTERwoRTH.


Copyright. $685. by Hezekiah Butterworth.)
The scene to which we introduce the
reader on this Thanksgiving eve, was in
the old Winslow house, at Green Har-
Dor, now Marshfeld, Mass. No house
in America. we may safely say, ever
had so many colonial legends of
Thanksgiving days as this.
-Silas,' said 1, tell us the story of
the dog that said 'Silasp It will be
new to the company
THE story of the Window in the
Woodsg Maybe, they do not care to
hear it. Some folks do, and then some
folks don't-some folks say that it
makes 'en like awake when the shut
tiers bang"
The company eagerly demanded the
tale.
There are had been nut-cracking
after the Thanksgiving dinner, followed
by a merry making, at which old New
England drollery had been sung to
Sllas' fiddle. This old song was called
Uncle Jeddediah,' and represented the
happy arrival Of guests from Boston,
lively bob ag + heads
'-Oh z we have a merry time?
Oh We we ha a merry time?
Polly Put the kettle on
And ven have tea -
Uncle Silas caught up his chair, and
lifted ii ia The Jumping way of the old
colonial times 90 place nearer the
fire. A shutter banged, and he cast
his eyes mysteriously towards the win
dow. The room grew very still.
The clouds are scudding over the
moon," he began. THE wind is rising
= can hear it in the tops of the trees.
Many's the time / have gone down to
Greenharbor in the stage coach On
nights like this, and leaped from the
seat and sna.ched the mail bag from
the boot, and when / said 'Silas, there
would creep out of the boot that old
coach dog
THAT dog was given to me by
sailor who was about to go to sea from
the old North river. He was a pup
then. / never knew a dog that seemed
to think SO much Of his master as that
dog did Of me. His eyes were never off
OF me. l taught him a number of
tricks, such as to stand up on his hind
legs and beg, which he did by uttering
sharp, pitiful cry. While begging
one day, he made a sound like 'Silas.'
1 repeated it and he uttered it again
After that I would hold back from him
his food until ne had made that sound.
Say Silas,' 1 would say, and after
time he would utter the word, or what
sounded like it. In time he would rise
on his hind legs, shake his fore paws,
and say 'Silas' whenever he wanted
food. l was very proud to have him
call me by name, and / had him do it
whenever ] met my friends. He be-
came a kind of neighborhood wonder,
and was called the talking dog"
THE old stage coaches had great
leather boots that covered the drivers
legs. and in cold and stormy days
could be raised so high as to protect
nearly the whole body. Many a time
have / driven my horses, protected
from the rain or snow by the boot
Under the boot I carried the mail
bags, and such packages as we today
send by express. The mail coach was
sometimes robbed. when the boot was
known to cover valuables. l carried
my own money in a large wallet, in
a side pocket of a great grey coat, and
money for others in the same way. 1
drove the stage for ten years. but
was never molested or robbed. And
in those ten years my dog Silas always
slept at my feet among the mail bags
while l was driving the stage, free,
healthy and happy, and feeling as
i
there was some strange things hap
pened in the old Dedham woods Sew
eral travellers who had gone through
those woods at night had met with
strange adventures. They had seen
a window and a light in lonely place.
q little distance from the way, and
heard the ringing of a bell like a sup
per bell. Two of them had turned in
towards the window, but as they at
+..r,- tod - ooh, -,
draw back into the heart of the woods.
After walking toward it for a consid-
cradle distance it seemed to them no
nearer, and they had became alarmed
and suddenly turned and fled, believ-
ing it to be a ghost. One traveller,
who had entered the road at dusk,
had never been heard of again.
After these events, any one who
saw the window at night took to his
heels, and at last few persons would
go through the woods after dark, ex-
cept in a carriage or in company. No
one riding in a carriage had ever seen
the mysterious window, but one man
riding there alone had been attacked
by an unknown person and robbed.
The Dedham woods began to bear a
bad reputation, but the dark events
that had happened there were assign
ed to ghosts, and the vanishing win
dow and light were spoken of as the
Phantom inn that travelled away
sometimes made a side tour through
the Dedham woods, and l used to be
warned to beware of the Phantom inn
l used to answer such warnings by
speaking to the dog and saying:
We are not alarmed, are we, ST.
las? Speak, dogr And the dog would
rise in the air and shake his paws, and
say sharply, 'Silas.'
The Dedham woods used to be a
lonely place. 1t is most farms now.
They stretched then away towards the
coast.
"Oh, those were lonely roads in win
ter. The winds used to whistle like
tiais-woo-oo-oo. Just as though they
were pinning-woo-oo-oo. They seem
ed to eaten the spirit of the sea which
was not many miles away-woo-oo-oo;
like that.
People began to move away to York
state. They called it up country then
The Mohawk valley seemed as far
away at that time as the prairies do
now. / had a good offer to go to AL
bany and take a stage route from there
to Buffalo. l caught the up country
fever and resolved to go. I may seem
weak, but one of greatest regrets on
parting was that L would have to leave
my old friend Silas, the coach dog, at
Greenharbor. and 1 might never see
him again.
''One day as I was stopping at the
old Sci1uate inn, just before setting out
for Albany, ! met a stranger there