By now the rain was pouring down, thunder was booming, and lightening was flashing. He tried the door, and when he found it unlocked, went in.
Except for a pile of wooden boxes, the house was empty. He broke up some boxes and made a nice fire. He soon fell asleep from the warmth it gave off. When he woke up a black cat was sitting near him. It stared at him for awhile, then began purring.
"That's a nice cat", he thought and dozed off again. When he opened his eyes, there was a second cat in the room. But this one was as big as a wolf! It looked at him very closely and it asked, "Shall we do it now?" "No", said the other cat. "Let's wait till martin comes."
"I must be dreaming," thought the old man. He closed his eyes again. Then he took another look. But now there was a third cat in the room, and this one was as big as a tiger! It looked the old man over and asked, "Shall we do it now?" "No," said the others. "Let's wait till martin comes."
Hearing that,the old man jumped up, jumped out the window and started running. "When martin comes, you tell him I couldn't wait," he screamed.
"Don't ever stand on a grave after dark", one of the boys said."The person inside will grab you. He'll pull you under." "That's not true," one of the girls said. "It's just a superstition." "I'll give you a dollar if you stand on a grave," said the boy. "A grave doesn't scare me," said the girl. "I'll do it right now." The boy handed her his knife."Stick this knife in one of the graves," he said."Then we'll know you were there."
The graveyard was filled with shadows and was as quiet as death."There is nothing to be scared of," the girl told herself, but she was scared anyway. She picked out a grave and stood on it.Then quickly she bent over and plunged the knife into the soil, and she started to leave. But she couldn't get away.Something was holding her back!
She tried a second time to leave, but she couldn't move. She was filled with terror. "Something has got me!" she screamed, and she fell to the ground. When she didn't come back, the others went to look for her. They found her body sprawled across the grave.
Without realizing it, she had plunged the knife through her skirt and had pinned it to the ground. It was only the knife that had held her.She had died of fright.
"Maybe you can rent a dress," her mother said. So she went to a pawn shop not far from where she lived. There she found a white satin evening gown in her size. She looked lovely in it, and she was able to rent it for very little.
When she arrived at the dance with her friend, she was so attractive, everyone wanted to meet her. She danced again and again and was having a wonderful time. But then she began to feel dizzy and faint, and she asked her friend to take her home. "I think I have danced too much," she told him. When she got home, she lay down on her bed.
The next morning the mother had found that her daughter had died. The doctor did not understand what had caused her death, So he had the coroner perform an autopsy.
The coroner found that she had been poisoned by embalming fluid. It had stopped her blood from flowing. There were traces of the fluid on her dress. He decided it had entered her skin when she perspired while she was dancing.
The pawnbroker said he bought the dress from an undertaker's helper. It had been used in a funeral for another young woman, and the helper had stolen it just before she was buried.
On December 31, 1812, the beautiful and vivacious Theodosia Burr, wife of wealthy Governor Joseph Alston of South Carolina, left her husband's plantation and sailed north on the Patriot to visit her beloved father, the famous Aaron Burr, in New York City. In early January the vessel was accosted off Cape Hatteras by ships of Great Britain, then at war with the United States, but was permitted to proceed on its journey. The Patriot was never seen again nor, with any certainty, was Theodosia. An angry storm that very night swept the coast of North Carolina. Some say that during the gale pirates boarded the Patriot, removed all valuables, forced passengers and crew to walk the plank, then sank the ship. But legend persists that Theodosia survived, that she was cast ashore in a small boat onto the Outer Banks, bereft of all possessions except a portrait of herself, and that, with her sanity completely gone, she was thereafter cared for by a Banker fisherman and his wife. The years went by. In 1869 the strange woman became ill, and a doctor from Elizabeth City was called in to attend her. He did what he could, but it was clear that she had not long to live. As he was leaving the sick room, the poor fisherman's wife told the doctor that, as she had no money, he would have to choose something from the house for his pay. When he replied that he would like to have the handsome portrait hanging on the wall, the afflicted old woman sprang from her bed. "It is mine! You shall not have it! I am on my way to visit my father in New York, and I am taking this picture of his darling Theodosia!" With that, she grabbed the canvas, rushed through the door, ran down into the surf, and walked into the ocean.. The next day, the portrait washed up on the beach. It is fact, not legend, that the doctor took the picture from Nags Head to his home in Elizabeth City, that a descendent sold it to an art dealer who in turn sold it to a member of the Burr family, and that it exists today.
A butcher in town named Bill Williams thought that was pretty good money. He stopped working as a butcher and started killing wolves. He was good at it. Every year he killed over 500 hundred of them. That came to more then five thousand dollars. It was quite a bit of money in those days.After four or five years, Bill had killed so many wolves, there were hardly any left in that area. So he retired, and he vowed never to harm another wolf because wolves had made him rich.
Then one day a farmer reported that a white wolf had killed two of his sheep. He had shot at it and hit it, but bullets didn't have any effect. Soon that wolf was seen all over the countryside, killing and running.But nobody could stop it. One night it came into Bill's yard and killed his pet cow. Bill forgot about his decision never to harm another wolf.
He went into town the next morning and bought a young lamb for bait. He took it out into the hills and tied it to a tree. Then he backed off about fifty yards and sat down under another tree. With his gun in his lap, he waited.
When Bill didn't come back, his friends started looking for him. Finally they found the lamb. It was still tied to a tree. It was hungry, but it was alive. Then they found Bill. He was still sitting against the other tree, but he was dead. His throat had been torn open. There was no sign of a struggle. His gun hadn't been fired. There were no tracks in the soil around him. As for the white wolf, it was never seen again.*