The Dixboro Ghost, Act II

Act II Scene I

[Hawkins’ House. Jackson and Isaac are building. Enter Abigail]

Stop now, and come for lunch: fresh bread with eggs- and pears and thimbleberries for desert.

Jackson : It is well that house building gets lighter the higher the work proceeds. Soon we will have walls and a chimney. A handsome fireplace is in progress

Isaac: Of size to fit a Franklin stove. We have this oak for the mantle, when the finishing comes.

Jackson: If there is iron enough, we may even get a lightening rod.

Abigail: And is our newcomer feeling better, after the day of rest? We missed you at our reading, and hope that when the pastor makes his circuit, you might increase our numbers.

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Isaac: We thank our neighbors for their kindness. We may have starved and froze before arriving at Ann Arbor. My grandfather was an elder of the old Dutch church of Sleepy Hollow. Often we would hear, and for His blessing stand ever in need.

Abigail: Rachael attends quite well, and is of much assistance in our reading of the Sermon on the Mount. Your wife has told us of this Isaac Van Woert, the first decorated with a medal- and for fidelity.

Isaac: So his wife, the beautiful Rachael Storm, made virtue easy! [Jackson and Abigail laugh]

But when I was ill, a very strange thing did occur at that house. As I looked into the glass window, in the front, about at sunset, I thought I saw a woman- though there was no woman there. Rachael had gone Mrs. Hammonds a few rods away…

Jackson: To see a woman is not strange…

Isaac: Nor would my boys play with matches. But I thought I saw a woman, with a candle burning. She was…of middling size, wearing a loosened gown, white linen wrapped around her head, her right hand clasped in her clothing near the waist. She was… a little bent over forward, [looking up at them] her eyes large, and much sunken- very pale indeed; her lips projected, and her teeth showing some…you look amazed?

Abigail: White linen round her head and stomach clasped?

Isaac: Indeed- your color has gone.

Jackson: Go on. It is yet something we have seen.

Isaac: Then she- the specter- moved, slowly across the floor, and entered the bedroom there. The door then closed behind her, and through the opened front door I thought I heard the bureau open and close. I went in straight, and opened the door, looked in, but all was dark, and nothing seen. In wonder then I lit a match and candle, though there was nothing there to see, nor even heard- not even mice, but all in silence.

Jackson: [To Abigail] Sit my dear. We must now tell you what you might have gathered from the very gloom that you, new residents, have dispelled somewhat about this town- though we have been reluctant to mouth about the business of others, contented with our own. Young Joseph Crawford’s house was lived in prior by the widow of the brother of this James Mulholland you have seen on your arrival at the store- and she did die there, not yet 3 weeks ago, following but seven weeks upon the funeral of John Sinclair.

Abigail: We are patient, and worried to trouble ourselves over the sorrow of her son, your young landlord Joseph. So William Mulholland, the very kind and generous brother of this James, has taken Joseph in- as it is not good, nor perhaps safe, for the young man to be left there alone amid the memory of his mother.

Jackson: This Martha, recently passed at much too young an age, was wife of John Mulholland, the brother of this James, and of this William. Their father Sam has also come, from Ireland.

Abigail: James and this John, had divided their combined properties shortly before this John too suddenly died, his wife Martha his heir. and Joseph Crawford, though his stepson, is now her heir- to the discontent of James, who says he must have the house and land to pay debts incurred by his brother John.

Abigail– the debts are not significant, and likely not attributable to John.

Jackson: Before Captain Dix- the founder of this village of Dixboro, had gone, by ’28?- this John and James Mulholland came prospecting to the town, and bought the mill and corner lot when Dix left for Texas- they being among the few who would by then contract with this Dix. James brought his then new wife Ann, leaving John in that to prospect on his own.

Abigail: Ann became ill, and Martha her sister came with Joseph, then five years old, from Canada to care for her sister. Joseph is the son of a first failed marriage in Canada, one she may have left in fear for her life.

Jackson: This Martha was quite beautiful. She and John then made acquaintance, and were secretly married. But when her sister Ann was told of her plans, she became greatly, and unexpectedly, upset, and tried severely to dissuade her sister. Ann had for some time appeared quite sad, taken by some great sorrow and brooding, her mind quite mired in despair. Finally, Ann told Martha some terrible secret regarding John and James. What this secret is has never been told- though there are suspicions. A tin peddler passing through this town long ago disappeared without a trace- his horse and cart found abandoned at what was then the corner store and post, as though he were at any time to return.

Abigail: This Martha then became ill much as did her sister Ann, now buried there along the Plymouth Road. They were much similar in their decline, and Martha has now followed her sister in death.

Jackson, We neglected to inform you about your house and landlady, thinking, or wishing these things to be past, and respecting the business of others. As Martha grew more ill, she was unable to produce an estimate of this property of John according to the requirement of the court, and James sued to become executor of the estate, arguing the insanity of his sister-in law. Has Joseph himself told you nothing of his mother?

Isaac Not a word, as though his mind were a chest locked by bereavement- he is very sad, and may be a while in mourning. But this explains his downcast eyes. He is but fifteen years old?

Abigail: There is yet more, gathered alike from report. When Martha thought to return to Canada,-appalled at the grave secret- James threatened that he would see to it that she never reached Canada alive. Under this- and perhaps other natural compulsions, Martha remained in Dixboro and married John A young son, soon born to them soon died, and then John himself died at the young age of 38. Death is more common on the frontier, where the way must be carved out before comforts arrive- if we have had more than our share of late. But John, before his death, divided his property from his brother James, and something of a feud developed, and the division was somehow not finally completed in the court.

Isaac: The specter I have seen, and coincidence with your tale- my hairs do stand on end again, with fear and wonder harrowed.

Abigail: Sure there is some disturbance in the very soul of this town. We hope that you are calmed by prayer. Now back to work! Mrs. Hammonds will soon arrive again to bake, more muffins, and bread to sell at Clement’s mill store.

Jackson: Soon a week will pass, and we will be even on your provisions.

We might also employ Betsy to haul our cart to Geddes mill for siding board and provisions.

[Page 25]

II, SCENE ii

[S D: Isaac awakens in the night, and rises to go out the back door of the house. As he opens the bedroom door, there is light. The moon is a waxing sliver.]

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Isaac: What? A candle left from midnight reading? [Seeing Martha about 5 feet away, he gasps]

Ah! [reaching to test the specter]

Martha: Don’t touch me! Touch me not.

Isaac [stepping back]…What is it that you want? …What disturbs your rest?

Martha: He has got it. He robbed me little by little, until they kilt me! They Kilt me! [Looking off and down] Now he has got it all!

Isaac: Who? Who has got it all? [She looks surprised that Isaac cares to ask]

Martha: James. Yes, James has got it all at last. But it won’t do him long…[Looking ahead] Joseph! Oh, Joseph…[Looking at Isaac] I wish Joseph would come away…

[The specter fades as Isaac sits in silence]

Rachael: Isaac? Are you well?

Isaac: Here.

Rachael: I will light a candle…there.

Isaac: I have seen her again.

Rachael: Oh?

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Isaac: This time she spoke. I will write it down as a dream, and then return to sleep.

Rachael [looking at the candle] I will make some tea of thimbleberry leaves, and wait a while. You may not work today for rain, and be able to rest until weeks end.

II, Scene iii

Lawyer: Now that both John and Martha have died, there stands nothing in the way of your being named executor for the disposal of the debts of your brother. Our Judge- appointed by our governor Barry, will be assured to uphold your interests.

James: The whiskey will be our case, by which the stronger argument will be made to appear the weaker brew.

Lawyer: The boy has been removed from the house, to which he will soon have no legal claim.

James: Nor to the land on which his unfortunate mother rests. Such papers as exist will not be found again.

Lawyer: A toast, then- to your interests.

James: And let the truth be committed to flames.

[Page 28]

II, Scene iv

[At the Hawkins house]

Jackson: There will be no work today at all unless this rain soon clears. We will rest up then, and attend to matters indoors. Will you have tea?

Isaac: Would that the coming weather could be foreseen. But that is well- having made rent and some supplies, we thank you both again. I have seen her again. [Pause] And this time she spoke.

Abigail: Oh, my!

Isaac: Indeed. It was late last night. When I awakened in the night, planning to go outside, a light appeared in the house just beyond the bedroom door, so that I thought a candle had been left burning, Opening the door, I looked, and saw her in the light. I reached to test the specter, but immediately she said: “Don’t touch me!” and, “Touch me not!”

Abigail: Somewhat as our Lord upon his resurrection also strangely said to Mary Magdalene.

Jackson: Indeed, it is a tangible marvel, and not like a dream-

Isaac: Rachael would soon awake, and see me waking. Then from our conversation I thought to ask her what she wanted, and seemed by this to give her leave to take notice of me and speak. And what she said is astonishing: James, she said, has, “Got it all.” “They Kilt me,” She said, and then looked off, and as though seeing her young son, she said, “I wish Joseph would come away.”

Jackson: She directly accuses James and some other. But the boy has the property- and she would seem to be deceived-

Abigail– At least for now. A blessing it is that Joseph is safely stowed with his kinder step- uncle.

Jackson: It would seem that Joseph may be in some imminent danger. There may be more yet to be done, and we must think of how to inform them. Our part is to watch, not knowing. When two possibilities appear, it it sometimes best to secure both.

Abigail: Thence we won’t regret dishonoring the prescience of this ghost.

[Page 30]

II, scene v

[Bedroom. Isaac awakens in the night in bed, and sees a light.]

Isaac: No candle- again!

[Martha appears as before]

Martha: James can’t hurt me any more

No! He cant’ I am out of his reach! [looking up and forward]

…Why don’t they get Joseph away?

Oh, my boy, why not come away?…[the specter fades]

[Isaac gets up lights a candle, and begins to write.]

II, Scene vi

Clement’s store. [Isaac and Jackson approaching just after sunrise. They pause.]

Isaac: [In a huddled voice.] I know not at what hour, but in the night she appeared again. She seemed to ask someone above her, Why don’t they get Joseph away.” Then, “Oh my boy, why not come away?”

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Jackson: It may be that Joseph is yet in some danger, our precautions insufficient. We will likely see him pass by soon, coming to work from his morning observance at his mother’s grave.

Isaac: Indeed, she first said- as though she had been taught and had now learned, that James cannot hurt me anymore.”

Jackson: But “Come away?” What then could she mean by that, and what could that mean?

Isaac: She may know she is “away,” but not yet realize where.

Jackson: Surely not to where she is, though she be safe from James- or she would not worry for him, or at least for his safety. But let us go in to this coffee and stove. [Enter Joseph]

Jackson [Shouting to Joseph] Joseph! We have some money for you! Come sit a minute.

Joseph: I do have just a minute, but must get to wheeling my stones.

Isaac: I’d loan you Betsy, if we had a working oxcart. Mr. Whitney has a fine young worker- you will not be unemployed that way!

Jackson: Mr. Wildcat- Clements- has for you a gold eagle covering the rent. That should help you in the house of William, and cover some ahead. Clements is our banker, and will soon be in. The blessing is that credit starts to flow at all- you will soon learn of these things.

Isaac: May you know the honor of producing things of value to your neighbors.

Jackson: Say, Joseph: we have noted how your step Uncle James, his only study has ever been how he might assume the property of his deceased brother, your step father John. – rest him, contrary to his will toward your mother and hence to you, that he might with your mother continue his care of you, though he be no longer here.

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Joseph: It may be that he would care for me more harshly than my mother. It was some time ago that he passed away, I was then but ten years old, having come to Dixboro with my mum when I was 7. He was often cross with us, then ill. But my uncle William, and their father Samuel, have noted the deeds of my assumed step uncle.

Jackson: As now you must be hurled into majority, if a bit early, all grown up, we will be direct with you, as we would not a child. We have some reason to worry if some foul play were not afoot regarding the decline and death of your mother., in the care of James, especially in her last days.

Joseph: Oh, Mr. Hawkins! Although she had once been cheerful, she became downcast, and overwhelmed with sorrows unknown, as though dreading some secret and hidden danger she would tell nothing of, but often stopped herself when about to address it…

Jackson: Indeed, it was not long after you went to stay with William that we took her the doctor in Ann Arbor, hoping for some cure, though he could do nothing to reverse her advanced decline.

Joseph: I do remember, and thank you. Often she waked from her sleep, frightened with horrid dreams, rising from slumbers with cries and exclamations, exhausted and shuddering as though working to escape some imminent danger- quite similar to the way that my aunt Ann, her sister, died.

Jackson: [putting his hand on Joseph’s shoulder] We pray that they are now at peace. We will be here for you in any need, and wonder at the malady with which your mother died. But allow me to ask- do you yet know any relatives in Canada, or place that you might go for a while?

Joseph: In short, no. I have seen none since I was about 5 years old, when my mother came from there to nurse Ann, and since remained. I do not remember much.

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Isaac We wonder if you might not like to be sent on some employment for a while- perhaps a trip out East, or somewhere clear of danger.

Jackson: You might enroll in school there as well, the fall semester having just begun.

[enter Clements]

Joseph: I thank you, but will stay a while by my mother’s grave despite this James- though I will take caution. Uncle William is helping to secure some matters of the property yet, and will be glad too to hear of your concerns and suggestions, which I will further consider with him. Mr. Whitney stirs, and I must go.

Clements: Your rent’s eagle [Tosses him a small gold coin]

Joseph: Thank you again!

[Draft p. 35]

Isaac: Thank You Dear, I’ll get a bite by the stove and be in shortly. The days work is sufficient for the day.

[He sets a pot on the stove, and after a pause, the front door opens by itself. Martha appears in the doorway, held up by James, but stretched back as though in the agony of death.]

James: She is dying. She will die.

[The apparition disappears gradually, and the door closes by itself.]

Isaac calmly reaches for his notebook and and writes a line.

II, Scene vii

[SD: Isaac, Hawkins and Mrs. Hammond at breakfast]

Well. I saw her again last night- the third time.

Jackson: Indeed?

Isaac: This time, the apparition is strange, as though she showed me a scene. As I sat late to eat a lunch for my late dinner- Rachael had gone exhausted to bed, and the boys all asleep, suddenly the door flew open, and there she stood, held up by this James- and note the strangeness- for he appeared to me as did she, though he yet lives, and is not a ghost. And here, it is he alone who spoke- for as he held her up, she as in the throughs of death, he looked as though at me and through me, sending chills up and down, and for the first time in all this set my hair to stand on end, for he said: “She is dying. She will die.”..” And then the apparition faded, the door closing again as though moving itself.

Mrs. Hammond: No! For that is just what she said to me near to the last day of her life, when she had come to me in terror, speaking unsoundly, and quite ill. James then came and took her back to the house in which you now live, with those same chilling words, “She is dying. She will die.”

Jackson: Then in this astonishment, Mrs Hammond came to Abigail and I- though we could do little but wring our hands. We had taken her to the doctor in Ann Arbor, but without improvement, and now she was in the care of James, we knowing little more than that she had been terribly ill.

Isaac: This then is stranger still. For because I had seen a specter of one not even dead, I had especially doubted my own eyes- yet I made notes again of what I had just seen and heard.

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Abigail: Whatever it is the confirmation repeatedly occurs, as she does show you- or you are shown, things true that have occurred. Mrs. Hammond did then say she wondered how James knew so surely she would die.

Jackson: Indigestion, indeed, would need go far to produce true dreams.

Isaac: And that while wide awake. And yet the manner of these three visitations is most strange.

Abigail: There are many things we do not know, and perhaps things yet to be shown.

Isaac: Indeed, it seems her business is not yet done. I was not so struck with fear by the ghost as by this James.

Jackson: Ours is to cautiously proceed.

Isaac: And first with what is ours to do. Today we might begin to frame the roof, and with some good luck shield these walls and floor before much rain..

Jackson: Which in fall is bound to come, here in Michigan.