A Kentucky Ghost Story...

By Crusader1307

 This is a clever ''Ghost Tale'' from The American State of Kentucky, originating roughly in the late 1850s. As the story goes, a Slave was returning from doing His Masters business, when He passed by a Cemetery (at dusk). Whereas it was staring to ''go dark'', ground mist was forming and the Graveyard began to take on an eerie appearance. As The Slave passed The Gate, He ''saw'' two ''shadowy forms'' bending over a Grave. The Slave heard one of the forms say ''One For Me and One For You!'' (over and over again). The Slave determined that the Spectres were none other than God and The Devil – both of whom were ''dividing the Souls of The Dead between Heaven and Hell''. This terrified The Slave, who ran home to tell His Master.

The Master (who had lost the use of His legs many years prior in an accident), listened to the tale His Slave told. Unbelieving, He told His Slave to ''place Him on The Slave's back'' and ''piggyback him'' to The Cemetery. Once at the Gate, The Master indeed saw the shadowy figures and heard their banter of ''One For Me and One For You''. After a minute, the first Spectre stopped and said to the other ''We've run out, No More''. The other Spectre responded ''No wait, there are TWO More By The Gate!'' This so terrified The Master that he jumped off His Slave's back and started to run. His ''fear'' apparently curing His ailment. The Master and The Slave ran all the way Home.

Clever? In truth, the two ''Spectres'' were Vagrants who had collected a stash of Hickory Nuts. They stopped over the Grave to ''count'' and divide their ''haul'' (One For Me and One For You). When done, one of the Men saw that they had ''dropped'' two nuts by The Gate (There Are Two More There!) Southern Humor or Ghostly ''truth''?