Project Gutenberg's Harper's Round Table, October 29, 1895, by Various

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Title: Harper's Round Table, October 29, 1895

Author: Various

Release Date: July 15, 2010 [EBook #33181]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HARPER'S ROUND TABLE, OCT 29, 1895 ***

Produced by Annie McGuire

[Illustration: HARPER'S ROUND TABLE]

Copyright, 1895, by HARPER & BROTHERS. All Rights Reserved.

* * * * *

PUBLISHED WEEKLY. NEW YORK, TUESDAY, OCTOBER 29, 1895. FIVE CENTS A
COPY.

VOL. XVI.--NO. 835. TWO DOLLARS A YEAR.

* * * * *

[Illustration]

ENGLISH ELIZA.

A HALLOWEEN STORY.

BY HEZEKIAH BUTTERWORTH.

"What was it that Obed saw?" That question used to be asked by
chimney-corners in the great farm-houses of an old New England
neighborhood for many years.

For Obed in his boyhood on a certain last night of October, "when the
moon was round," had seen a spectacle the account of which filled the
minds of many good people with wonder and of simple people with terror.
Even the cats and dogs seemed to be uneasy when it was discussed in an
awesome tone of voice on old red settles, for such animals seem to share
the fears of their masters. "Come, now, Obed is no fool," the
work-people used to say.

"What do you suppose it was that he saw? It was proper strange!"

Obed lived in one of the farm neighborhoods near Medfield, a town famous
in King Philip's war. The place has a fearful legend of a family who
were killed by the Indians, and a very curious story of a farmer who
saved his family at the time of the Indian attack by rolling out of the
cellar a barrel of cider.

It is a quiet town to-day, not a long ride from Boston. It would delight
a tired man or an artist; it is old-fashioned and full of rural beauty,
a bit of old New England left over, as it were. Great elms throw their
cloudlike shadows over the trim and well-kept roads in summertime. The
churches, the homes, the farms all show a historic pride. Here great
orchards once bloomed; here the Baltimore orioles still swing in the
elms, and the bobolinks topple in t