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Page 39
In a few minutes more he had reached the main door of the mansion, and
withdrawing the chain and bolt, stood in the open air. It was a bright
moonlight night. He struck slowly across the open grounds towards the
sunken fields beyond. When-midway across the grounds, he turned towards
the mansion, and saw three of the front windows filled with white faces,
gazing in terror at the wonderful spectre. Soon descending a slope, he
disappeared from their view.
Presently he came to hilly land in meadow, whose grass having been
lately cut, now lay dotting the slope in cocks; a sinuous line of creamy
vapor meandered through the lowlands at the base of the hill; while
beyond was a dense grove of dwarfish trees, with here and there a tall
tapering dead trunk, peeled of the bark, and overpeering the rest. The
vapor wore the semblance of a deep stream of water, imperfectly
descried; the grove looked like some closely-clustering town on its
banks, lorded over by spires of churches.
The whole scene magically reproduced to our adventurer the aspect of
Bunker Hill, Charles River, and Boston town, on the well-remembered
night of the 16th of June. The same season; the same moon; the same
new-mown hay on the shaven sward; hay which was scraped together during
the night to help pack into the redoubt so hurriedly thrown up.
Acted on as if by enchantment, Israel sat down on one of the cocks, and
gave himself up to reverie. But, worn out by long loss of sleep, his
reveries would have soon merged into slumber's still wilder dreams, had
he not rallied himself, and departed on his way, fearful of forgetting
himself in an emergency like the present. It now occurred to him that,
well as his disguise had served him in escaping from the mansion of
Squire Woodcock, that disguise might fatally endanger him if he should
be discovered in it abroad. He might pass for a ghost at night, and
among the relations and immediate friends of the gentleman deceased; but
by day, and among indifferent persons, he ran no small risk of being
apprehended for an entry-thief. He bitterly lamented his omission in not
pulling on the Squire's clothes over his own, so that he might now have
reappeared in his former guise.
As meditating over this difficulty, he was passing along, suddenly he
saw a man in black standing right in his path, about fifty yards
distant, in a field of some growing barley or wheat. The gloomy stranger
was standing stock-still; one outstretched arm, with weird intimation
pointing towards the deceased Squire's abode. To the brooding soul of
the now desolate Israel, so strange a sight roused a supernatural
suspicion. His conscience morbidly reproaching him for the terrors he
had bred in making his escape from the house, he seemed to see in the
fixed gesture of the stranger something more than humanly significant.
But somewhat of his intrepidity returned; he resolved to test the
apparition. Composing itself to the same deliberate stateliness with
which it had paced the hall, the phantom of Squire Woodcock firmly,
advanced its cane, and marched straight forward towards the mysterious
stranger.
As he neared him, Israel shrunk. The dark coat-sleeve flapped on the
bony skeleton of the unknown arm. The face was lost in a sort of ghastly
blank. It was no living man.
But mechanically continuing his course, Israel drew still nearer and saw
a scarecrow.
Not a little relieved by the discovery, our adventurer paused, more
particularly to survey so deceptive an object, which seemed to have been
constructed on the most efficient principles; probably by some broken
down wax figure costumer. It comprised the complete wardrobe of a
scarecrow, namely: a cocked hat, bunged; tattered coat; old velveteen
breeches; and long worsted stockings, full of holes; all stuffed very
nicely with straw, and skeletoned by a frame-work of poles. There was a
great flapped pocket to the coat--which seemed to have been some
laborer's--standing invitingly opened. Putting his hands in, Israel drew
out the lid of an old tobacco-box, the broken bowl of a pipe, two rusty
nails, and a few kernels of wheat. This reminded him of the Squire's
pockets. Trying them, he produced a handsome handkerchief, a
spectacle-case, with a purse containing some silver and gold, amounting
to a little more than five pounds. Such is the difference between the
contents of the pockets of scarecrows and the pockets of well-to-do
squires. Ere donning his present habiliments, Israel had not omitted to
withdraw his own money from his own coat, and put it in the pocket of
his own waistcoat, which he had not exchanged.
Looking upon the scarecrow more attentively, it struck him that,
miserable as its wardrobe was, nevertheless here was a chance for
getting rid of the unsuitable and perilous clothes of the Squire. No
other available opportunity might present itself for a time. Before he
encountered any living creature by daylight, another suit must somehow
be had. His exchange with the old ditcher, after his escape from the inn
near Portsmouth, had familiarized him with the most deplorable of
wardrobes. Well, too, he knew, and had experienced it, that for a man
desirous of avoiding notice, the more wretched the clothes, the better.
For who does not shun the scurvy wretch, Poverty, advancing in battered
hat and lamentable coat?
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