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Harte, Bret, 1836-1902

"Drift from Two Shores"

But all this
digression fell upon apparently inattentive ears.
"Well, sir, after the murder, the cabin stood for a long time
deserted and tenantless. Popular opinion was against it. One day
a ragged prospector, savage with hard labor and harder luck, came
to the camp, looking for a place to live and a chance to prospect.
After the boys had taken his measure, they concluded that he'd
already tackled so much in the way of difficulties that a ghost
more or less wouldn't be of much account. So they sent him to the
haunted cabin. He had a big yellow dog with him, about as ugly and
as savage as himself; and the boys sort o' congratulated
themselves, from a practical view-point, that while they were
giving the old ruffian a shelter, they were helping in the cause of
Christianity against ghosts and goblins. They had little faith in
the old man, but went their whole pile on that dog. That's where
they were mistaken.
"The house stood almost three hundred feet from the nearest cave,
and on dark nights, being in a hollow, was as lonely as if it had
been on the top of Shasta.


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