| Show A Profi profitable ghost I 1 I 1 1 I 1 I had been out fishing in the old south bay said bat d a long island subscriber the other day 4 with one of those crafty fishermen to whom no days on which the water may be tempted are considered days for bad luck dies in faustus dustus being a term unknown in his calendar lie he was one of those long necked clam eaters whose tote rose and fell with the tides fides which made them plentiful or left them scarce As we were coming in in our boat after a successful foray upon bass bas and sheepshead head we fell to meditate upon various matters which were neither nor akin As boswell would say of the colloquies collo of the great leviathan we spoke of ghosts you say ray ghosts have bee been seen on long island but you never seen em and dohnt believe in em wal yes I 1 can cantway tsay I 1 dj di believe in em but I 1 guess I 1 should believe in em ef I 1 had such luck in gettin a sight on aein emas as a man did down to jerusalem south a good many years ago the way of it was this I 1 you see it was a dreadful cold winters night about nine how the old south bay roared that night when there was a sleigh with three fellows into it dhruv up under the hoss shed at the tavern two on em got out and as they got but they said to vother one jim aist you sit there sad and mind the horses while we go in and get so methin well be right out again abrain they went into the tavern but they come right out agin bv a though when they did come out they had more th than L an a juff ul a into tm cm both on em had hal ha ha i fore they come out but though bill the osler osier said to the man in the sleigh ef I 1 was you I 1 sit there in the cold as long as your a dont you go in and get so methin too the man never said It othin though in answer but sot up as straight as an indian bill who was lookin after some other bosses under the same shed ater a while said some thin more inore to him but he was as still as a aster poty soon bill said to himself goy blamed ef I 1 dont think hes friz to death or else hed say some thin so he went up to him and shook him and sure enough he found him aruz as stia as a stake and when he c ome come to hold up his lantern to look he found him propped up on each side on the seat the lines was wound round his hands be was muffled up with comforters about his face and he was stone dead bill nob odys fool ef he did dad attend to bosses he smelt the whole thing out to once two or three graves had been robbed about there only a little while before and the two chaps in the t tavern was two body gatherers that had been paid by doctors to get bodies for em for to cut up and been and robbed a new anew grave that night and here bere rere was the corpse wrapped up and propped up in in that sleigh so that folks would nt suspicion ab about out it now what ayou spose bill does he goes and takes bill does that body out of the sleigh for he gasn wasn t afraid of the very devil strips off the clothes and puts it into the oat bin inside and f fastens the door then he puts on the dead mans clothes himself his self and he goes and gets into the sleigh with em onto him puts the lines round his hands props himself up and waits for the body snatchers to come out from the barroom bar room booty soon out they come got in in on the wide seat along side of him and dhruv off there bill sits as straight as a rail but nt long fore one 0 the chaps says to beelin 0 bills bill s leg a little I 1 I 1 why the blodys gettin warm feel 0 that tha t I 1 leg e g T other one put down his hand and felt 0 bills legs and then he started back and said its a fact by thunder it is is warm and no mistake bills time now so he turned his head round stiff like and straight without moving his body and says he I 1 warm wal I 1 guess be WARM ef been took butof as hot a P place lace only a little while ago as I 1 was bill says it half a second fore both of 0 f them hem chaps had pitched head first out 0 that sleigh and n d on oa em r stopped till they was clean out 0 sight then lie he turned right square round and dhruv dhruv back to the tavern there he told the whole story and he made a good speck out 0 the thing too in in the end for you see the friends of the man that was dug up guv him fifty dollars for savin 0 the body and as nobody ever came back ater the sleigh and horses he sold em to captain B down on H plains for nigh upon three hundred dollars a fust rate team so they said that s the most profitable and about the only ghost that ever I 1 heerd tell on good many folks talks about scein seem em but I 1 expect they never did not rally harpers new monthly mag |
