Folklore Pamphlets, 1921-1945

              beyond. This was a short-cut to the village, nearly a mile away. In going to the village on errands it was the wont of our girl and boy cousins to take this path. These journeys were sometimes taken in the early summer evenings. There being a small company of children they would start away bravely enough, the older ones leading and the younger ones in the rear. As they walked down the path among the graves in single file the springy nature of the ground caused the nearby crosses and boards to move to and fro, or up and down. Then someone became frightened and the entire little party began to hurry, and to run. Now, as they ran faster and faster, all of the grave markers appeared to be moving. It was as if their dead were trying to arisf; from their graves and pursue the intruders. Of course the children never halted until in their mad flight they had scaled the fence at the other side of the cemetery. In the field beyond they stopped out of breath and tired. On their way back from the village they always came by the country road, mak¬ ing a wide detour to avoid the Potter's Field. Nevertheless the old bury¬ ing ground was such an attraction to these children that only a few evenings later they were again ready to adventure across the field of the dead.
The old Potter's Field disappeared many years ago. Whatever may have been its ghostly secrets they are now entirely lost.
OLD  COUNTRY TOMBSTONES
As children we found our occasional visits to the country cemetery always very interesting. There one must be on ones best behavior. In wandering about among the graves one must be very careful not to tread on any of them. Dire things had been known to happen to persons who did this. To pick any of the flowers which grew on graves or in flower beds was a grave misdemeanor also. The dead resented the plucking of any of their posies. Their spirits were known to wreak vengeance on those who did this.
Our interest was particularly attracted by the monuments, of which there were many different forms,—slabs, cubes, rectangles, spheres, broken columns, obelisks, cubes surmounted by urns, and others. Most interesting of these were the quite numerous old white marble tombstones of the pioneers and of other old settlers of the country. Most of these had carved near their tops such old Yankee devices as 'reclining lambs, weeping willows, rose sprays, gates ajar, cross and crown, square and compass, three links, and many others. Some grave stones were badly weathered, others had broken off at their bases and fallen into the grass.
The epitaphs carved on these stones we read and re-read. Not a few were
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