Ambrose Bierce - Selected stories: An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge
()
About this ebook
An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge
A Baby Tramp
If you had seen little Jo standing at the street corner in the rain, you would hardly have admired him. It was apparently an ordinary autumn rainstorm, but the water which fell upon Jo (who was hardly old enough to be either just or unjust, and so perhaps did not come under the law of impartial distribution) appeared to have some property peculiar to itself: one would have said it was dark and adhesive -- sticky. But that could hardly be so, even in Blackburg, where things certainly did occur that were a good deal out of the common.
For example, ten or twelve years before, a shower of small frogs had fallen, as is credibly attested by a contemporaneous chronicle, the record concluding with a somewhat obscure statement to the effect that the chronicler considered it good growing-weather for Frenchmen.
Some years later Blackburg had a fall of crimson snow; it is cold in Blackburg when winter is on, and the snows are frequent and deep. There can be no doubt of it -- the snow in this instance was of the colour of blood and melted into water of the same hue, if water it was, not blood. The phenomenon had attracted wide attention, and science had as many explanations as there were scientists who knew nothing about it. But the men of Blackburg -- men who for many years had lived right there where the red snow fell, and might be supposed to know a good deal about the matter -- shook their heads and said something would come of it.
And something did, for the next summer was made memorable by the prevalence of a mysterious disease -- epidemic, endemic, or the Lord knows what, though the physicians didn't -- which carried away a full half of the population. Most of the other half carried themselves away and were slow to return, but finally came back, and were now increasing and multiplying as before, but Blackburg had not since been altogether the same.
Of quite another kind, though equally 'out of the common,' was the incident of Hetty Parlow's ghost. Hetty Parlow's maiden name had been Brownon, and in Blackburg that meant more than one would think.
The Brownons had from time immemorial -- from the very earliest of the old colonial days -- been the leading family of the town. It was the richest and it was the best, and Blackburg would have shed the last drop of its plebeian blood in defence of the Brownon fair fame. As few of the family's members had ever been known to live permanently away from Blackburg, although most of them were educated elsewhere and nearly all had travelled, there was quite a number of them. The men held most of the public offices, and the women were foremost in all good works. Of these latter, Hetty was most beloved by reason of the sweetness of her disposition, the purity of her character and her singular personal beauty. She married in Boston a young scapegrace named Parlow, and like a good Brownon brought him to Blackburg forthwith and made a man and a town councillor of him. They had a child which they named Joseph and dearly loved, as was then the fashion among parents in all that region. Then they died of the mysterious disorder already mentioned, and at the age of one whole year Joseph set up as an orphan.
Ambrose Bierce
Ambrose Bierce was an American writer, critic and war veteran. Bierce fought for the Union Army during the American Civil War, eventually rising to the rank of brevet major before resigning from the Army following an 1866 expedition across the Great Plains. Bierce’s harrowing experiences during the Civil War, particularly those at the Battle of Shiloh, shaped a writing career that included editorials, novels, short stories and poetry. Among his most famous works are “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge,” “The Boarded Window,” “Chickamauga,” and What I Saw of Shiloh. While on a tour of Civil-War battlefields in 1913, Bierce is believed to have joined Pancho Villa’s army before disappearing in the chaos of the Mexican Revolution.
Read more from Ambrose Bierce
The Weiser Book of Horror and the Occult: Hidden Magic, Occult Truths, and the Stories That Started It All Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Complete Short Stories of Ambrose Bierce Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Famous Modern Ghost Stories Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Greatest Ghost and Horror Stories Ever Written: volume 4 (30 short stories) Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Unabridged Devil's Dictionary Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge and Other Stories Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Greatest Ghost and Horror Stories Ever Written: volume 1 (30 short stories) Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Greatest American Short Stories: 50+ Classics of American Literature Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Classic American Short Story MEGAPACK ® (Volume 1): 34 of the Greatest Stories Ever Written Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Devil's Dictionary Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Hellbent Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Devil's Dictionary Illustrated Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsWrite It Right Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsTRICK OR TREAT Boxed Set: 200+ Eerie Tales from the Greatest Storytellers: Horror Classics, Mysterious Cases, Gothic Novels, Monster Tales & Supernatural Stories: Sweeney Todd, The Murders in the Rue Morgue, Frankenstein, The Vampire, Dracula, Sleepy Hollow, From Beyond… Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Collected Short Stories of Ambrose Bierce Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings50 Masterpieces of Occult & Supernatural Fiction Vol. 1 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Devils Dictionary Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Greatest American Short Stories (Vol. 1) Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Devil's Dictionary: Satirical Definitions of Everyday Words Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings
Related to Ambrose Bierce - Selected stories
Titles in the series (10)
Edgar Allan Poe - Selected Stories: The Black Cat Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsJack London - Selected Stories: To Build a Fire Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsO.Henry - Selected Stories: The Last Leaf Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsAnton Chekhov - Selected stories: ABOUT LOVE Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsAmbrose Bierce - Selected stories: An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsMark Twain - Selected Stories: The Story Of The Bad Little Boy Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsH.H. Munro (SAKI) - Selected Stories: The Blind Spot Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsLouisa May Alcott - Selected Stories: A Christmas Dream, and How It Came to Be True Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsGuy de Maupassant - Selected stories: A Father's Confession Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsKate Chopin - Selected Stories: A Matter of Prejudice Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings
Related ebooks
The Mayor Of Casterbridge Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Nether World Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Yeoman's Tale Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe White Moll Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsRomance Island: 'Dusk on the tropic seas is a ceremony performed with reverence'' Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsAaron in the Wildwoods Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsToilers of the Sea Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Paliser case Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSundry Accounts Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Spinning House Affair Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Complete Works of Edgar Saltus Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Nether World: "The first time I read an excellent work, it is to me just as if I gained a new friend" Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsFirst Fam'lies of the Sierras Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Secret of Father Brown Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsChildren of the Desert Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsWhistling Dick's Christmas Stocking Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Cup of Trembling and Other Stories Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsParrot & Co. Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Harlequin Opal, Vol. 1 (of 3) A Romance Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsA Changed Man Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsNo Man's Land Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe White Moll Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Sea Lady Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Sea Lady Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5'Jena' or 'Sedan'? Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Fight for the Valley: A Story of the Siege of Fort Schuyler and the Battle of Oriskany in the Burgoyne Campaign of 1777 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Red Rat's Daughter Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Sweep Winner Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsDawn's Early Light Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings
General Fiction For You
The Priory of the Orange Tree Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Dante's Divine Comedy: Inferno Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Fellowship Of The Ring: Being the First Part of The Lord of the Rings Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Covenant of Water (Oprah's Book Club) Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Man Called Ove: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Cloud Cuckoo Land: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Life of Pi: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Beartown: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The City of Dreaming Books Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Silmarillion Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Shantaram: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Lost Flowers of Alice Hart Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Mythos Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Jackal, Jackal: Tales of the Dark and Fantastic Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Unhoneymooners Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Ocean at the End of the Lane: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5You: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Canterbury Tales Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5My Sister's Keeper: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5It Ends with Us: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Recital of the Dark Verses Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Dry: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Labyrinth of Dreaming Books: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Alchemist: A Graphic Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Ulysses: With linked Table of Contents Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Nettle & Bone Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Pet Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Other Black Girl: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Iliad of Homer Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Babel: Or the Necessity of Violence: An Arcane History of the Oxford Translators' Revolution Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Reviews for Ambrose Bierce - Selected stories
0 ratings0 reviews
Book preview
Ambrose Bierce - Selected stories - Ambrose Bierce
Ambrose Bierce, Edited by Ahmet Unal CAM
Ambrose Bierce - Selected stories
An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge
UUID: d6814cde-9ad9-11e8-ba2b-17532927e555
This ebook was created with StreetLib Write
http://write.streetlib.com
Table of contents
A Baby Tramp
A Baffled Ambuscade
A Horseman in the Sky
A Little of Chickamauga
An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge
An Unfinished Race
A Vine on a House
A Wireless Message
Chickamauga
Four Days in Dixie
A Baby Tramp
by Ambrose Bierce
If you had seen little Jo standing at the street corner in the rain, you would hardly have admired him. It was apparently an ordinary autumn rainstorm, but the water which fell upon Jo (who was hardly old enough to be either just or unjust, and so perhaps did not come under the law of impartial distribution) appeared to have some property peculiar to itself: one would have said it was dark and adhesive -- sticky. But that could hardly be so, even in Blackburg, where things certainly did occur that were a good deal out of the common.
For example, ten or twelve years before, a shower of small frogs had fallen, as is credibly attested by a contemporaneous chronicle, the record concluding with a somewhat obscure statement to the effect that the chronicler considered it good growing-weather for Frenchmen.
Some years later Blackburg had a fall of crimson snow; it is cold in Blackburg when winter is on, and the snows are frequent and deep. There can be no doubt of it -- the snow in this instance was of the colour of blood and melted into water of the same hue, if water it was, not blood. The phenomenon had attracted wide attention, and science had as many explanations as there were scientists who knew nothing about it. But the men of Blackburg -- men who for many years had lived right there where the red snow fell, and might be supposed to know a good deal about the matter -- shook their heads and said something would come of it.
And something did, for the next summer was made memorable by the prevalence of a mysterious disease -- epidemic, endemic, or the Lord knows what, though the physicians didn't -- which carried away a full half of the population. Most of the other half carried themselves away and were slow to return, but finally came back, and were now increasing and multiplying as before, but Blackburg had not since been altogether the same.
Of quite another kind, though equally 'out of the common,' was the incident of Hetty Parlow's ghost. Hetty Parlow's maiden name had been Brownon, and in Blackburg that meant more than one would think.
The Brownons had from time immemorial -- from the very earliest of the old colonial days -- been the leading family of the town. It was the richest and it was the best, and Blackburg would have shed the last drop of its plebeian blood in defence of the Brownon fair fame. As few of the family's members had ever been known to live permanently away from Blackburg, although most of them were educated elsewhere and nearly all had travelled, there was quite a number of them. The men held most of the public offices, and the women were foremost in all good works. Of these latter, Hetty was most beloved by reason of the sweetness of her disposition, the purity of her character and her singular personal beauty. She married in Boston a young scapegrace named Parlow, and like a good Brownon brought him to Blackburg forthwith and made a man and a town councillor of him. They had a child which they named Joseph and dearly loved, as was then the fashion among parents in all that region. Then they died of the mysterious disorder already mentioned, and at the age of one whole year Joseph set up as an orphan.
Unfortunately for Joseph the disease which had cut off his parents did not stop at that; it went on and extirpated nearly the whole Brownon contingent and its allies by marriage; and those who fled did not return. The tradition was broken, the Brownon estates passed into alien hands, and the only Brownons remaining in that place were underground in Oak Hill Cemetery, where, indeed, was a colony of them powerful enough to resist the encroachment of surrounding tribes and hold the best part of the grounds. But about the ghost:
One night, about three years after the death of Hetty Parlow, a number of the young people of Blackburg were passing Oak Hill Cemetery in a wagon -- if you have been there you will remember that the road to Greenton runs alongside it on the south. They had been attending a May Day festival at Greenton; and that serves to fix the date. Altogether there may have been a dozen, and a jolly party they were, considering the legacy of gloom left by the town's recent sombre experiences. As they passed the cemetery the man driving suddenly reined in his team with an exclamation of surprise. It was sufficiently surprising, no doubt, for just ahead, and almost at the roadside, though inside the cemetery, stood the ghost of Hetty Parlow. There could be no doubt of it, for she had been personally known to every youth and maiden in the party. That established the thing's identity; its character as ghost was signified by all the customary signs -- the shroud, the long, undone hair, the 'far-away look' -- everything. This disquieting apparition was stretching out its arms toward the west, as if in supplication for the evening star, which, certainly, was an alluring object, though obviously out of