Today I would like to share a story with you from the book Acadian Legends, Folktales and Songs by Georges Arsenault. This book is very interesting to read. This part is very suitable seeing Halloween is not far away. Mister Arsenault acquired these stories by talking to the local people. Here is Nellie Nuttrell’s story.You’ve probably heard about Pierre Poirier’s house ?.
Pierre was married to a girl called Marie Bernard. I think they had 5 children. Well Pierre’s wife died when the children were little. He couldn’t live alone. So after a few months he found himself another woman.
She was a Doucette, her name was Emilie. She was an old maid who never had anything to do with children. She didn’t know what it was to love a child, she hadn’t had children. After she was married she had her first child. Well she liked that child but she didn’t like Pierre’s children. She was pretty nasty to one of his girls. One day she pushed her down the stairs and broke her arm.” If you tell your father I will spank you ,she said”. You’re not going to say a word about it. The little girl was only 7 or 8 years old. She was so scared she would not have told her father for anything in the world. Her arm never set and the infection got in it and she died. The stepmother wasn’t any kinder to the poor girl even when she was sick.Anyway she died. After she was dead they would hear someone walking upstairs, then they’d hear someone coming down the steps. They would always leave the house because the woman was scared when she heard the noise. One night when they were in bed, Pierre told her she was just imagining things. She said to him
“No, you heard it yourself, you know!”.Anyway not long after they were in bed, they heard the noise out in the hall,their bedroom door was closed. They heard something walking in the hall,coming towards their bedroom. Then it knocked on the door. Pierre jumped out of the bed and opened the door. There was nobody there. The next day a man named Arsene came to the house. He was a travelling salesman, as Pierre had a store. He got there at suppertime. Pierre said to him “ You might as well have a cup of tea with us”
Arsene had heard about the trouble they had but didn’t dare ask if it was true. They were in the middle of supper when all of a sudden they heard noise upstairs like a pile of glass falling. Oh! There was a big crash. It made the plates on the table rattle. It was awful. That’s when she said “Ah, that’s the noise we hear all the time. Well said Arsene Is that true? Yes she replied. I can’t stay here at all. As soon as I am alone it torments me. It comes down the stairs and goes back up again. The priest had said to them. Maybe if you have the house blessed…….So they had their house blessed. After that there were sound of chains rattling under the house. They heard chains ,big chains that made a racket and shook everything. They said “ We don’t know what to do with this house ,we can’t stay here any longer. Suddenly the house caught fire
And burned. Then they built a new house and never heard the noise again. The house was built on the same location as the old house and they never heard a thing. Everyone said it was because the woman had been so mean or nasty to the little girl and it was the little girl haunting her.
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