Plainfield High School - Hermiad Yearbook (Central Village, CT)

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THE HERMIAD 11 He arose, and hauling the body out and laying it stretched out on the floor, said, 'fWell, I know there 15 more of you somewhere up there, so you might as well come down. He waited a few minutes and sure enough, down came the head. I knew you would come when you were readyf' he said, as he picked up the head and tried to fit it on the neck, but it 'didn't fit just right. All the same he left it lying there, looked at it a few moments, and went back to his reading. A little later he heard another noise. Lowering his paperand looking up, he saw a man's leg fall in the ashes as the body had done before. ' I ' Well, he said, rising, here is a leg, where is the rest of your body? ' He waited, but he heard no noise, so he went back, but as he resumed his reading, down came the body with the arms, one leg hanging to it, followed by the head. V U Well, wellf' said the man. Is ithere any more up there? Come along down if there is, I'm ready for you ! ii The owner of the house was up in the chimney dropping down these bodies which he had prepared for the occasion, and he had heard all that the man had had to say. Then he .thought he would come down himself, wrapped in a sheet. .He fastened himself to a rope, and let himself down slowly, but when he was about three fourths of the way down he slipped and fell down in the same manner as he had dropped the bodies. As soon as he landed, he picked himself up. V I Oho E said the man. I guess this is the real thing. ' By this time, the owner had come out of the fireplace and 'taken hold of the man to frighten him. To the owner's sur. prise, the man knocked him Hat on the floor and gave him a genuine beating. When this ended, the owner of the house lay perfectly quiet. When he became conscious again, he did not dare to move, afraid that if he did the man would kill him outright. He lay as quiet as possible until morning. -Then he slowly opened his eyes and said, If you will let me OE easy, I won't ever try any more tricks on you. Oh I It's.you, is it ? said the man unwrapping the sheet. He could scarcely believe his own eyes, for it was the owner of the house. VVell., said the man, fi If you are ready to lead an hon- est life, I will let you go, but don't ever try to scare anyone else. After this, the man finished paying for the house and lived there quietly, happily and undisturbed for many years.

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10 THE HERMIAD tell Hilda and Mr. Bloom, when he came face to face withboth of them. Mr. Bloom, unobserved, had been sitting in the rear of the court room. Old scout, Mr. Bloom said. You did that very clev- erly. I congratulate you. You have a job for six weeks at 3150 a week. C'mon3 we're already an hour late for rehearsal. p THE HAUNTED HOUSE ELSIE RosE CNCE there was a man who earned money by selling a house and scaring out the people who had bought it, after they had moved in. He always said the house was haunted when anyone asked any particulars concerning it. When 2 person came to buy it, he set his price and asked him to pay fifty dollars down the first thing. Everyone thought it queer that he asked only fifty dollars down at Hrstg nevertheless, they would pay it and xnove in. Theyxhardly ever stayed more than the first night, however. The hrst two or three times, he sold it all rightg but soon people began to talk about it.. Still, other people, thinking possibly that they had more courage than the rest, would try it, hut always with the same result. The man earned quite a sum of money in this way, fifty dollars at a time, during the Space of a year. At last a man came along and said. I arn going to buy that housef' Perhaps you won't like it, said the owner. None of the rest have. You knowthe house is haunted, but 'haunts' vvon't hurt anybody. ' ' ' I am not afraid of ' haunts ', said the man. I am god ing to buy that house and live there. I am surely glad of that, said the owner, thinking that the man was iust boasting and that he could scare him as easily as he had the others. ' The man paid the fifty dollars down, but he didn't move his family in He brought what things he wanted for himself and spent the nights there. He was always home evenings, too. He wanted to see how and by Whom the house was' haunted. He had heard a good deal of talk about it and he desired to find out for himself., He stayed there most every night reading or tinkering on something or other to take up his time, but no 'haunt' appeared. ' At last, one night, rather late in the evening while he was reading, he heard a noise in the fireplace. He watched a few minutes and what should fall down into the ashes but the body of a man with no head on it.

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12 THE HERMIAD SQUAW ROCKS STEWART WILLIAMS Located near the northern boundary of the town of Plain- field, about three and a half miles from Moosup, is a ridge of rocks known as Squaw Rocks or Seven Wonders. The Nip- muc Indians, who once occupied this territory, were continu- ally at war with others in this vicinity, and it is said that the rocks were used at such times as hiding places for the squaws and children. In winter, the caves were used as places of shelter from the snow and Storms. ' Squaw Rocks extend north and south about twenty rods. The ridge, at its highest. point, measures one hundred feet, and here is found that formation of rocks known as the Devil's Coffin, about twenty feet deep, eight feet wide and twenty feet long. Below it is a large cave called The Old Lady's Kitchen, in which is found The Old Lady's Chair, together with her stove. Close at hand, is a flat rock called the Dancing Floor, directly in the center of which is the Well, extending twenty feet into the rock, then turning and coming out fifty feet be- low. A little farther on is the Fiddler's Stand, sometimes called Pulpit Rock, a very large boulder, delicately balanced. At a point farther north, reached by the Sheep'S Path and beyond the Toboggan Slide, is a cave with two passages lead- ing to a fair-sized room, from which another passage pene- trates to an unknown distance into the rocks. Several parties have explored it until the lights which they carried went out, a warning not to go farther. Indian arrow-heads in quite large numbers have been found in and about the rocks. THE RESULT OF A PRISONER'S ESCAPE ELEANOR MAIN Jockford High School's basket-ball team was a member of the Tasenam League, which every year offered a prize of fifty dollars to the winning team. At the beginning of the season, jockford had won against every opponent, for she had three veteran players who really made her team. But near the close of the season, one of these men became very ill and was unable to return to school, and soon after, a second moved out of town. This left Stephen, the best of the three to be sure, and the captain, alone, with all the other players depending on him He made his men practice at every possible chance be- cause the most important game of the season was soon to be ,Y , fha, Y, Y 7