172 APPENDIX. 



den, with some compensations, etc. But the fun of it 

 we wished all the time to be out of it, not on account 

 of boarding the spooks gratis ; but we were tired of 

 the prospect before us of slow starvation. I must 

 abridge my narrative and tell you how I was punished 

 for my trifling with hobgoblins and for the credulity 

 of those believing in them. The whole farm, 18 or 20 

 or more acres of land, barn and dwelling-house, were 

 valued $500 rent a year, or the house and two acres of 

 garden $300, with the taxes for what I occupied, this 

 last part of the farm ; afterward the proprietor would 

 not allow me any thing, saying that the whole taxes 

 were on the house and garden ; that sort of argumen- 

 tation did not suit me, and I said that the valuation of 

 the whole concern, farm and garden, was $500, and 

 that I occupied for $300. I would pay accordingly in 

 that proportion, three-fifths, and he two. He would 

 not hear it, and stuck to his former intention. Finally 

 our lease expired, 1st March, 1847, and we moved 

 where we are now. A short time after we left his 

 place, he married his daughter to a Trojan, who came 

 to live in the house when we hardly had moved our 

 relics. That man was not a proselyte of ghosts, for he 

 came to see me to buy some shrubs, and we had a talk 

 about the spirits. " Well," he said, " I will fix them all 

 right ; if any, they must be in the crevices of the old 

 walls, and I will paper them all over (he was a hang- 



