Page:Book Of Halloween(1919).djvu/175



In Colonial days Hallowe'en was not celebrated much in America. Some English still kept the customs of the old world, such as apple-ducking and snapping, and girls tried the apple-paring charm to reveal their lovers' initials, and the comb-and-mirror test to see their faces. Ballads were sung and ghost-stories told, for the dead were thought to return on Hallowe'en.

"There was a young officer in Phips's company at the time of the finding of the Spanish treasure-ship, who had gone mad at the sight of the bursting sacks that the divers had brought up from the sea, as the gold coins covered the deck. This man had once lived in the old stone house on the ' faire greene lane,' and a report had gone out that his spirit still visited it, and caused discordant noises. Once ... on a gusty November evening, when the clouds were scudding over the moon, a hall-door had blown