Other Worlds by KATHY Read Free Book Online Page A

footnote to this tale is that Betsy insisted the Spirit had warned them not to go riding that day because a storm was approaching. She added, "It had a way of saying things like that when we were going off, just as our father did when he wanted us to stay home, and told us many things to scare us that were not true."
    Need I point out to you gentlemen why I consider this comment significant? No, I see I do not.
    Stories of the Spirit's kindly actions—there were others—all derived from stout old Mrs. Betsy herself after an interval of many years, give quite a different picture of the Spirit's interest in her than we get from other witnesses. According to her brothers and her friends, the invisible presence afflicted the girl more and more painfully as time went on.
    Betsy began to suffer from fainting spells, as Richard calls them. In fact, they were a good deal more serious. After a period of panting and gasping, she would seem to stop breathing, and would remain unconscious for as long as half an hour. The seizures left no permanent effects, but they must have been agonizing to endure and dreadful to watch. No one doubted the Spirit was responsible for them. They came on in the evening, at about the time the Spirit usually presented itself, and while the girl was unconscious the voice was not heard.
    As if this affliction were not enough, the Spirit now began a campaign to deprive Betsy of a young girl's fondest hope—a lover of her own.
    Young as Betsy was, she had several admirers. Chief among them was Joshua Gardner, the son of the neighbor who had unwittingly supplied the witch family with its whiskey. A picture of Joshua has survived; it shows he was a good-looking young chap, with regular features and a shock of thick dark hair. As soon as Joshua began to court the girl in earnest, the invisible chaperone made itself heard. At first its voice pleaded gently, "Betsy, please don't marry Joshua Gardner." Joshua and Betsy ignored the advice, so the Spirit took stronger measures. Not only did it resume its physical attacks on poor Betsy, yanking the combs from her thick yellow hair and slapping her face, but it abused the young couple verbally. One of the servants recalled overhearing one of these attacks when he was making up the fire in the room where the lovers were sitting:
    "Lawd a mercy, I heard that Witch talk the awfullest 'fore them, just made Miss Betsy so shamed she had to rout out of the room, and that boy would go right on home."
    One can't help wondering precisely what the Spirit said. It must have been vulgar in the extreme, for no one ever reproduced the remarks.
    Joshua was not Betsy's only admirer. Another young man had watched her bloom into womanhood and had fallen helpless victim to her charms.
    One of the admirable Mr. Bell's first projects on arriving in Tennessee was to build a schoolhouse on his property, not only for his own children but for any of the neighborhood youngsters who cared to attend. Betsy was a student for four years, between the ages of ten and fourteen. As the young master, Richard Powell, watched her develop in beauty and intelligence he fell in love with her, but kept silent about his feelings. Her attachment to Joshua was known, and Richard may have felt he had nothing to offer. He was only a country schoolteacher, without prospects or property, and a good many years older than she.
    Both her suitors were helpless witnesses of Betsy's sufferings at the hands of the Spirit. She had a champion, however—a neighborhood Hercules named Frank Miles. His feats of strength became proverbial. A neighbor recalled seeing him crack a black walnut between his teeth. This native American fruit, my friends, is not one of your paper-shelled almonds or pecans; its covering is as hard as a rock. I confess this feat impresses me more than any of the usual demonstrations of muscle power— though if I had been Mr. Miles's dentist, I would have advised him to show off in some other way.
    Frank