Kentucky Hauntings(40)

Later that day, while Mattie was recovering from her ordeal, Mr. Granger went back into the woods with Howard's favorite blanket. He wrapped the body of the little dog in the blanket and carried it back to the backyard. He dug a grave and buried the family's best friend. This time Howard was home for good.





Ghost by the Tree


Roberta's Uncle Lawrence liked this story and often told it when we gathered for storytelling.

When Tim Dutton was a teenager in the 1900s, he moved with his family to a western Kentucky farm that they had bought at auction. He wasn't too pleased about the move because it meant living farther away from his friends and the small town where they had been living. There had been all sorts of things to do in town, but in the country it seemed he always had to be doing some kind of chore or dealing with a problem of some kind.

From the first day the family had moved to the farm, there had been a problem with the cows.

They didn't want to come from the pasture to the barn for milking at the end of the day. For the first two days, Tim's dad rounded them up and brought them to the barn, but then he decided it would be a perfect chore for Tim. Tim totally disagreed.

“I don't know why they can't come up by themselves,” he grumbled. “We should just leave them out there until they do!”

“I can't work by their schedule,” said Mr. Dutton. “It's strange, though. That big oak tree is the only shade, but they don't gather under it. They don't even like to walk by it.”

“Maybe they're spooked by the tree,” Tim's younger sister, Ester, suggested.

“That's silly,” said Tim. “Why would they be spooked by an oak tree?”

“Haven't you heard?” she asked. “A man hanged himself in that tree. He lost his farm and then he lost his mind. So he hanged himself.”

“You're making that up,” accused Tim.

“I am not,” she insisted. “People have seen his ghost standing by the tree late in the afternoon ’cause that's the time he did it.”

“Where did you hear that?” asked the father.

“At school,” she said. “Several people told me when they found out we had moved here.”

“I think maybe they were playing a little joke on you,” said her father.

“They weren't kidding,” she said. “They were serious.”

Tim and his father shook their heads and disregarded her explanation for the lingering cows. Ester shrugged her shoulders and went on about her playing. If they didn't want to hear the truth, it was all right with her. They could find out for themselves.

Tim thought the cows lingered because they liked grazing in the fresh air. Even cows would not like to be shut up in a barn when they could be free outside.

On one particular day, however, Tim's father did not take into consideration what the cows might want. It looked like rain was moving in, and he wanted the chores done now. It was time to feed and milk the cows, so he told Tim to hurry up and bring them to the barn.

Tim strolled through the pasture, passed by the oak tree, and started down the hill where the cows were grazing. He hated to admit it to himself, but, as he had passed the tree, he had gotten the eeriest feeling that he wasn't alone. Low thunder caused him to look up, and he glimpsed someone standing beside the tree. He blinked and looked again. Whoever it was had gone.

“I get it,” he said to himself. “My sister sneaked down to the tree to scare me.”

He stared at the tree to see if he could catch her hiding, but as he looked he heard her call him from the yard.

“Did you see something by the tree?” she called.

“Of course not!” he lied.

He couldn't let her know she'd been right. She'd be so smug about it that he'd never live it down.

She laughed and went back to her playing.

Tim decided that he must have seen a shadow. Whatever it was, it made him uneasy. For once, he herded the cows to the barn quickly, feeling very relieved to be safely back from the field.

Everybody gathered inside for supper, and a soft rain set in, giving a cozy feeling to the family inside. Tim managed to put the disturbing experience at the tree out of his mind until the next afternoon when it was time to go get the cows again.

As he approached the tree, he warned himself not to imagine things. Then, suddenly, the man was beside the tree again. Tim had no idea where he had come from. One second the tree was normal. The next second, the man was there.

“Hey, Mister!” Tim called to the man.

The man didn't answer. Instead, he vanished as mysteriously as he had come.

“My sister's tale is causing me to see things,” he said to himself. “It's the power of suggestion.”

He hurried the cows to the barn as fast as he could, but he saw nothing else that day.