The Dead Moon

     Long ago the Lincolnshire Cars were full of bogs and it was death to walk through them, except on moonlight nights, for harm and mischance and mischief, Bogles and Dead Things and crawling horrors came out at nights when the moon did not shine. At length the Moon heard what things went on in the bogland when her back was turned, and she thought she would go down to see for herself, and find what she could do to help. So at the month's end she wrapped a black cloak round her, and hid her shinning hair under a black hood, and stepped down into the boglands. It was all dark and watery, with quaking mud, and waving tussocks of grass, and no light except what came from her own white feet. On she went, deep into the bogland and now the witches rode about her on their great cats, and the will-o'-thewryks danced with the lanterns swinging on their backs, and dead folks rose out of the water, and stared at her with fiery eyes, and the slimy dead hands beckoned and clutched. But on she went, stepping from tuft to tuft, as light as the wind in summer until at length a stone turned under her, and she caught with both hands at a snap nearby to steady herself, but as soon as she touched it it twisted round her wrists like a pair of handcuffs and held her fast She struggled and fought against it but nothing would free her. Then, as she stood trembling she heard a piteous crying, and she knew that a man was lost in the darkness, and soon she saw him, splashing after the will-o'-thewykes, crying out on them to wait for him, while the Dead Hands plucked at his coat, and the creeping horrors crowded round him, and he went further and further from the Path.

     The Moon was so sorry and so angry that she made a great struggle, and though she could not loose her hands, her hood slipped back, and the light streamed out from her beautiful golden hair, so that the man saw the bog-holes near him and the safe path in the distance nearly as clear as by day. He cried joy, and floundered across, out of the deadly bog and back to safety, and all the Bogles and evil things fled away from the moonlight, and hid themselves. But the Moon struggled in vain to free herself, and at length she fell forward, spent with struggle, and the black hood fell over her head again, and she had no strength to push it off. The all the evil things came creeping back, and they laughed to think they had their enemy the Moon in their power at last. All night they fought and squabbled about how best they should kill her, but when the first grey light before dawn came they grew frightened and pushed her down into the water. the dead folk held her, while the Bobles fetched a great stone to put over her, and they chose two will-o'-thewykes to guard her by turns, and when the day came the moon was buried deep, until someone she find her, and who knew where to look?

     The days passed, and folk put straws in their capes, and money in their pockets against the coming of the new moon, and she never came. and as dark night passed, the evil things from the bogland came howling and screeching up to men's very doors, so that no one could go a step from the house at night, and in the end folk sat up all night, shivering by their fired, for they feared if the lights went out, the things would come over the thresholds.

     At last the went to the Wise Woman who lived in the old Mill, to ask what had come of their Moon. She looked in the mirror, and in the brew pot, and in the Book, and it was all dark, so she told them to set straw and salt and a button on their door-sills at night, to keep them safe from the Horrors, and to come back with any news they could give her.

     Well, you can be sure they talked, at their firesides and in the Garth and in the town. so it happened one day, as they were sitting on the settle at the Inn, a man from the far side of the bogland cried out all of a sudden, "I reckon I know where the Moon is, only I was so amazed I never thought on it." And he told them how he had been all astray one night, and like to lose his life in the bog-holes, and all of the sudden a clear bright light had shone out, and showed him the way home. So off they all went to the Wise Woman, and they told what the man had said. The Wise Woman looked in the Book, and in the pot, and at last she got some glimmer of light and told them what they must do. They were to set out together in the darkness with a stone in their mouths and a hazel twig in their hands, and a cross, and a candle, and that was where the Moon would be. Well, they were main feared, but next night they set out and went on and on, into the midst of the bog.

     They saw nothing, but they heard a sighing and whispering round them and slimy hands touching them, but on they went, shaking and scared, till suddenly they stopped, for half in, and half out of the water they saw a long stone, for all the world like a coffin, and at the head of it stood a black snag stretching out two branches, like a gruesome cross, and on it flickered a tidy light. Then they all knelt down and they crossed themselves and said a Prayer, forward for the sake of the cross, and backward against the Bogles, but all silently, for they knew they must not speak. Then all together they heaved up the stone. For one minute they saw a strange beautiful face looking up at them and then they stepped back amazed with the light, and with a great shrieking wail from all the horrors, as they fled back to their holes, and the next moment the full moon shone down on them from the sky, so that they could see their path near as clear as by day.

     And ever since then the Moon has shone her best over the boglands, for she knows all the evil things that are hid there and she remembers how the Car men went out to look for her when she was dead and buried.