Cuddymonk's Ghost

Cuddymonk's Ghost by Alice Morse Earle

"Cuddymonk's Ghost" by Alice Morse Earle is a comic folk tale set in old Narragansett, Rhode Island, centered on a superstitious Black man named Cuddymonk and his encounter with what he believes to be a genuine ghost. Cuddymonk, known locally as the "Black Governor," lives comfortably with his pragmatic wife Rosann. When the elderly Dr. Greene, suffering from rheumatism, needs a driver for his daily rounds of medical visits, Rosann insists that Cuddymonk take the job despite his fierce reluctance. His hesitation stems entirely from fear of the supernatural: Narragansett's farms are dotted with small family burial grounds, and Cuddymonk is convinced that nighttime driving will expose him to ghosts, witches, and other spirits. Rosann dismisses his fears as decades of idle superstition, noting that in forty years of marriage he has talked endlessly about ghosts without ever actually seeing one. She prevails, and Cuddymonk reports to the Doctor the next morning. For a week all goes smoothly, with Cuddymonk enjoying the social prestige of driving the respected physician and greeting friends and constituents along sunny country roads. His contentment ends abruptly when a messenger arrives late on a damp, misty September afternoon summoning the Doctor to the distant Champlin farm on Boston Neck. Knowing the route requires passing multiple family graveyards in the dark, Cuddymonk is seized with dread. He attempts to arrange for the Doctor to spend the night at the Champlin farm, but the Doctor refuses. Cuddymonk's only concession is to put his coat and waistcoat on inside out, a folk remedy believed to ward off ghosts, and the two set off into the mist. At every gate along the drift-way roads Cuddymonk leaps in and out of the chaise with uncharacteristic speed, driven by terror rather than diligence. At the Champlin farm, the old Black cook Ruth fills him with metheglin and fresh ghost stories until his nerves are thoroughly undone. On the return journey, every rustle and shadow magnifies into supernatural menace. When Dr. Greene chooses the route past Pender Zeke's corner and the ruins of the old Narragansett Church, Cuddymonk pleads desperately, warning of witches who brew in the old noon-house and of a ghost seen dancing on a gravestone. The Doctor ignores him entirely. As they pass the churchyard, both men see what appears unmistakably to be a ghost: a tall, slender column of shimmering pale light, roughly seven feet high, vaguely shaped like a robed figure, glowing with a faint uncanny radiance through the mist. Cuddymonk is paralyzed with terror. The Doctor, fascinated rather than frightened, immediately wants to investigate. He seizes the reins, stops the horse, and climbs out of the chaise over Cuddymonk's desperate, weeping protests. The Doctor strides across the churchyard while Cuddymonk clutches the reins and prepares to flee. Stumbling through the dark graveyard, the Doctor falls into a freshly dug grave filled with cold water. Cuddymonk hears the splash and assumes him destroyed. Despite repeated commands and threats, including the threat of conjuring with a skeleton, Cuddymonk refuses to move until the Doctor drags himself out and physically hauls the terrified man by the collar up the church steps and across the yard to face the apparition. Forcing Cuddymonk to open his eyes, the Doctor strikes the glowing form with his whip. A great swarm of fireflies bursts into the air, revealing beneath them a juniper tree that had grown in a vaguely human shape and had attracted the insects on the misty autumn night. Cuddymonk nearly faints with relief. The Doctor, now thoroughly soaked and feeling the grip of his rheumatism, takes a flask from his medicine bag and directs Cuddymonk to drive quickly to Zeke Gardiner's nearby farm. There the household rouses itself, wraps the Doctor in dry warmth, and Mistress Gardiner forces upon him a punishing compound herbal tea in revenge for years of his own unpleasant medical treatments. Tucked into a feather bed, the Doctor orders Cuddymonk to drive home, inform Mrs. Greene he has been detained on account of an overdose of spirits, and return in the morning. Cuddymonk listens respectfully, agrees obediently, and then quietly stables the horse in the Gardiners' barn, climbs into the hayloft, and sleeps peacefully through the night, appearing at the front door with horse and chaise exactly as instructed the following morning.

By Alice Morse Earle · First published 1898 · Genre: Gothic Fiction, Humorous Fiction, Folklore and Legend · 3,134 words

First lines

Black Cuddymonk and his wife Rosann were holding an animated discussion as they sat before the fire in their cheerful kitchen in old Narragansett. That is, Cuddymonk was talking loudly and effusively, while Rosann said little, but said it firmly; and in the end succeeded in having her own way, as such stubborn, talk-less persons usually do, whether they be black or white. Cuddy had had an offer of employment for a month, and he was unwilling to accept the position and do the work; but Rosann calmly overruled him and he had to yield. It was not that the work was hard, or that the pay was poor, but simply that Cuddy was afraid, he was too superstitious to dare to face the terrors that the performance of his duties might bring forth. And yet it seemed simple enough! Old Dr. Greene had the rheumatism and could not hold the reins to drive, and he wanted to hire Cuddy to drive in his chaise with him when he went on his daily round of visits, and to care for the horse when he returned home. Cuddy would have loved to feed and rub down the horse, and drive through the sunny lanes and green woods, and sit in the sun while the Doctor visited and dosed and bled within doors.

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Cuddymonk's Ghost is listed on Textopian as a short story by Alice Morse Earle, dated 1898 CE.

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children's literature · ghost story · supernatural fiction · American fiction · Victorian literature · family life · childhood · imagination · mystery · humor · domestic fiction · New England setting

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