41. Walnut-Cracker

41. WALNUT-CRACKER

Walnut-cracker lived at a certain place. He liked walnuts, so he gathered a great number of walnuts and made a pile of them. He also had things with which to crack them. He ate walnuts all day. That was the way he lived, and when he died they buried him at the place where the walnuts were.

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Some time afterwards a man out hunting passed near that place and found a great number of walnuts there. He cracked and ate one and, finding it good, came back during the night and got some more walnuts there. He leaned his gun up against a tree, sat down, and cracked walnuts.

While he was sitting there a man came out of a house close by and heard some one at the place where Walnut-cracker had lived. He listened and heard the cracking plainly. Looking closely in that direction he saw a man sitting there looking like the man who had died and been buried. Then he went back into the house and said, "That man who always cracked walnuts and died and whom we buried sits at the same place cracking walnuts." All went out and looked toward the place, and sure enough there was some one sitting there. Then they crept toward him.

A lame man who thought a lot of that former Walnut-cracker, and after he had died had been talking a great deal about him, said, "Take me along on your back. I want to see him." One man took him on his back and all started.

When they got near, they thought it was a ghost. They stopped in fear, but the lame man whispered, "Take me a little farther so that I can see him." His companion took him farther on and stopped. The Walnut-cracker did not see them. He only kept on cracking walnuts. Then the lame man said again, "Take me a little farther again so that I can see him." He was taken still closer, and when they got very close the man who was cracking walnuts looked back and seeing so many people standing about jumped up quickly, leaped toward the place where his gun stood, seized it, and ran off. When the people saw him moving about they also ran. The man who had the cripple on his back threw him off and ran with them.

The man who was crippled jumped up and ran. That man had nothing the matter with him any longer. He outran the others and reached his house and could walk ever after. Therefore, if a person has a sudden fright, sickness may disappear.

This is the way they tell it.