A Diary of My Younger Years - The Autobiography of Ivan Hall

The Old Mansion

THE OLD MANSION

On the side of a barren mountain, about four miles to the north of Woodbury, stands an old mansion, whose walls had no doubt already stood for more than half a century at the time we lived there during the summer and fall of 1881. About the place stood a few lofty fruit trees, one of which bore four different kinds of fruit.

Only a few steps from the door of the mansion is a little mound, a grave without any tombstones. The four of us little fellows (my three brothers and I), as we played about the grassy yard among the trees, little knew the history or legend connected with the grave and the mansion.

At the foot of this mountain there rises a beautiful spring, bubbling forth its sparkling waters clear and cool. Many years before, an old man lived at this mansion, whose head had turned gray and whose form was bent with age. Through his folly he had married a young and beautiful wife, who made him very unhappy and who did not love him but only coveted his fortune and his gold.

At last, having become very miserable, he decided that he would end his unhappy life; so he decided to go down to the spring and die beside the running waters. He tried to persuade his young wife to go with him, so that they might end their lives together; but she would not go, for she mistrusted his plan.

Thus, down the long hillside, he took his lonely walk to death by himself. When he reached the spring, he looked upon it sparkling waters and said in his heart, "Here is the bubbling spring where I first saw my young and beautiful bride; and now because of her I am willing to die." So he raised his razor with his feeble hand and cut his throat, ending his life. There by the side of the spring he lay, cold and stiff in death, till his friends came and took him away.

That is the end of his story. It is supposed that the old man is buried in the grave by the mansion. Whether his spirit has taken flight to another world or still lingers in the grave or about the mansion, I know not. But it is said by the old-time settlers that you might pass by this old mansion any dark night and see the form of someone walking about the place with his head gone and the drops of blood trickling down his neck. Also, about the place loud noises can be heard, like someone falling; and the doors of the mansion wouldn't shut at night. Now anyone would almost feel lost to look at the old house with its crumbling walls and moss-covered roof and the tall, wild grass growing about the yard. Such is the tale told by ye old-time settlers of that area.