n was on old
McDonough road, so ter get ter the plantation she had ter come by a
cemetery and you could see the white stones shining in the moonlight.
This cemetery was near a cut in the road that people said was hanted and
they still say old McDonough road is hanted. One night, mama said she
was on her way to the plantation walking on the middle of the road and
the moon was shining very bright. When she reached this cut she heard a
noise, Clack! Clack! Clack!, and this noise reminded a person of a lot
of machines moving. All at once a big thing as large as a house came
down the side of the road. She said it looked like a lot of chains,
wheels, posts all mangled together, and it seemed that there were more
wheels and chains than anything else. It kept on by making that noise,
clack! clack! clack!. She stood right still till it passed and came on
ter the farm. On her way back she say she didn't see it any more, but
right till ter day that spot is hanted. I have knowed horses to run away
right there with people and hurt them. Then sometimes they have rared
and kicked and turned to go in the other direction. You see, horses can
see hants sometimes when folks can't. Now the reason fer this cut being
hanted was because old Dave Copeland used to whip his slaves to death
and bury them along there."

The next story was told to Mrs. Heard by her father, who experienced it,
as a slave boy.

"My father sed when he wuz a boy him and two more boys run away from the
master 'cause the master whipped 'em. They set out and walked till it
got dark, and they saw a big old empty house settin' back from der road.
Now this house was 3 or 4 miles from any other house. So they went in
and made a fire, and laid down 'cause they wuz tired from running from
the Pader rollers. Soon they heard something say tap! tap! tap!, down
the stairs it came, a loud noise and then "Oh Lordy Master, I aint goin'
do it no more; let me off this time." After a while they heard this same
noise like a house falling in and the same words "Oh Lordy Master, I ant
goin' do it no more. Let me off this time." By this time they had got
good and scared, so my pa sed he and his friends looked at each other
and got up and ran away from that house jest as fast as they could go.
Nobody knowed why this old house wuz hanted; but they believed that some
slaves had been killed in it."

The next is a story of the Jack O'lantern as told by Mrs. Heard.

"Old South River on' the Jo