Free Southern Fried Rat and Other Gruesome Tales by Daniel Cohen Page A
Authors: Daniel Cohen
over on the city slicker. In modern stories it is often the student outwitting the teacher, as these extremely popular tales of exam trickery demonstrate. With one variation or another they have been repeated all over the country.
By the way, don't be tempted to try these tricks yoursell. As I said, these are very well known stories, and teachers, who once were students, know them as well as students. If the tricks ever worked in the first place, which is doubtful, they certainly are not going to work anymore.
The Hand of
Charity Hawthorne
Joe Linet wasn't afraid of anything—at least to hear him tell it. He bragged about the time he went swimming in shark-infested waters. And about the time he had taken a loaded gun away from a burglar. And about the time he had calmly stepped into a burning barn to rescue a frightened horse at the risk of his own life.
His friends, or at least the people who knew him, for nobody really liked him, doubted most of his stories. But there was no way to prove him wrong, no way to shut him up. They just had to endure those endless, and probably untrue, stories.
As Joe was winding up a thrilling (to him) account of how he had spent one vacation diving off the high cliffs at Acapulco, Pete Judson, a member of his captive audience, said: "I guess there isn't much that you're afraid of."
"There isn't anything I'm afraid of," said Joe.
"You're not afraid of ghosts?"
"I don't even believe in ghosts," said Joe. "And I'm certainly not afraid of them."
"Then I suppose you wouldn't be afraid to go into the graveyard at midnight, and lay to rest the ghost of Charity Hawthorne."
"Huh?" said Joe. He hadn't expected that.
"You know the old part of the cemetery. The part where they have graves from a hundred or two hundred years ago."
Joe didn't, but he nodded his head yes anyway.
"Well, if you go into the cemetery," continued Pete, "you'll find that it's pretty crowded with graves. But there's one grave that is set apart from al! the others, up on a little mound. You can't miss it.
"That's the grave of Charity Hawthorne. She died back in the 1820s, and everybody said that she was a witch. Now, they weren't burning people as witches then, but that's not to say there weren't a lot of people in this town who wouldn't have liked to have seen Charity Hawthorne burned. She was an old woman with an evil reputation. It was said that she could cause people and animals to get sick just by looking at them. They said that she had the evil eye. People said a lot of other things about her too. That the devil would visit her in her house. And that whenever a child disappeared, the child wound up in Charity's cooking pot."
"You don't believe any of that superstitious nonsense," protested Joe.
"I'm not saying I believe it. I'm just telling you what a lot of people around here did believe back then. They couldn't prove anything against her. So when she died, she had every right to be buried in the graveyard along with everybody else. Still, people saw to it that her grave would be set well away from the others, so that she wouldn't contaminate them after death.
"Now, here's the point. It was said that Charity was pretty angry about the way she had been buried, and that on many nights she gets up out of her grave and walks around the other tombstones."
"I've never heard that," said Joe.
"You weren't born here," said Pete. "People here don't like to talk about it to outsiders. They're afraid they'll be laughed at."
"Anybody should laugh at that silly story."
"If it's just a silly story," continued Pete, "then you won't mind going into the graveyard and putting an end to it once and for all. According to the story, the only way to keep Charity's ghost in its grave is to go into the cemetery at midnight, kneel down on her grave, and plunge a dagger into it."
"Piece of cake," smirked Joe.
"I'm not through yet," said Pete. "You have to do this at midnight. If you don't do it just exactly at the stroke of
By the way, don't be tempted to try these tricks yoursell. As I said, these are very well known stories, and teachers, who once were students, know them as well as students. If the tricks ever worked in the first place, which is doubtful, they certainly are not going to work anymore.
The Hand of
Charity Hawthorne
Joe Linet wasn't afraid of anything—at least to hear him tell it. He bragged about the time he went swimming in shark-infested waters. And about the time he had taken a loaded gun away from a burglar. And about the time he had calmly stepped into a burning barn to rescue a frightened horse at the risk of his own life.
His friends, or at least the people who knew him, for nobody really liked him, doubted most of his stories. But there was no way to prove him wrong, no way to shut him up. They just had to endure those endless, and probably untrue, stories.
As Joe was winding up a thrilling (to him) account of how he had spent one vacation diving off the high cliffs at Acapulco, Pete Judson, a member of his captive audience, said: "I guess there isn't much that you're afraid of."
"There isn't anything I'm afraid of," said Joe.
"You're not afraid of ghosts?"
"I don't even believe in ghosts," said Joe. "And I'm certainly not afraid of them."
"Then I suppose you wouldn't be afraid to go into the graveyard at midnight, and lay to rest the ghost of Charity Hawthorne."
"Huh?" said Joe. He hadn't expected that.
"You know the old part of the cemetery. The part where they have graves from a hundred or two hundred years ago."
Joe didn't, but he nodded his head yes anyway.
"Well, if you go into the cemetery," continued Pete, "you'll find that it's pretty crowded with graves. But there's one grave that is set apart from al! the others, up on a little mound. You can't miss it.
"That's the grave of Charity Hawthorne. She died back in the 1820s, and everybody said that she was a witch. Now, they weren't burning people as witches then, but that's not to say there weren't a lot of people in this town who wouldn't have liked to have seen Charity Hawthorne burned. She was an old woman with an evil reputation. It was said that she could cause people and animals to get sick just by looking at them. They said that she had the evil eye. People said a lot of other things about her too. That the devil would visit her in her house. And that whenever a child disappeared, the child wound up in Charity's cooking pot."
"You don't believe any of that superstitious nonsense," protested Joe.
"I'm not saying I believe it. I'm just telling you what a lot of people around here did believe back then. They couldn't prove anything against her. So when she died, she had every right to be buried in the graveyard along with everybody else. Still, people saw to it that her grave would be set well away from the others, so that she wouldn't contaminate them after death.
"Now, here's the point. It was said that Charity was pretty angry about the way she had been buried, and that on many nights she gets up out of her grave and walks around the other tombstones."
"I've never heard that," said Joe.
"You weren't born here," said Pete. "People here don't like to talk about it to outsiders. They're afraid they'll be laughed at."
"Anybody should laugh at that silly story."
"If it's just a silly story," continued Pete, "then you won't mind going into the graveyard and putting an end to it once and for all. According to the story, the only way to keep Charity's ghost in its grave is to go into the cemetery at midnight, kneel down on her grave, and plunge a dagger into it."
"Piece of cake," smirked Joe.
"I'm not through yet," said Pete. "You have to do this at midnight. If you don't do it just exactly at the stroke of
Similar Books
Sweet One (Titan Book 8)
Cristin Harber
Mortal Arts (A Lady Darby Mystery)
AnnaLee Huber
Isabel's Run
M. D. Grayson
Bachelors Anonymous
P.G. Wodehouse
In the Bag
Jim Carrington
How it Ends
Laura Wiess
My True Love Gave to Me
Ava March
The Deceivers
John Masters
By Design
Jayne Denker