Sinseerly a Friend & Yr Obed’t

Title: Sinseerly a Friend & Yr Obed’t
Author: Thomas M. Waldroon
Publication: Beneath Ceaseless Skies, 170-172 April 2015 
Description, by Lois Tilton [Locus]: "The title... suggests the likelihood of humor, but that’s not really what’s going on here. It involves a Tall Tale, but it turns out to be a true tale..... The central character is Mr Stutley Northrup, sometimes called “Old Stuck-Up”, who lives the near Pennsylvania shore of Lake Erie in the mid-nineteenth century. Now comes to him the Justice of the Peace, a former student, wondering about the rumors of a sea serpent in the lake. Northrup isn’t impressed; he already knows all about the sea serpent, seen it himself. But there’s a complication, the real reason the JP has come to Northup about—and against—the monster. A body has washed ashore, and it’s been identified as Amos, Northrup’s hired man, known by him as a fugitive slave......" 
Category:Best Novelette