A School Story
 |
| "A School Story" | |
|---|---|
| Short story by M. R. James | |
 | |
| Country | England |
| Language | English |
| Genre(s) | Horror |
| Publication | |
| Publication date | 1911 |
"A School Story" is a ghost story by British writer M. R. James, included in his collection More Ghost Stories of an Antiquary.
Plot
[edit]Two men are discussing the folklore of the private schools they attended. One tells of a Latin teacher named Mr. Sampson who kept a Byzantine coin that he would show his students. The narrator's friend gives the teacher a strange message in Latin which translates to "remember the well among the four yews",[1] though he doesn't know why he wrote it. Later another paper shows up translating to "If you don't come to me, I'll come to you",[2] and it visibly worries Sampson. Later at night the narrator's friend sees a horribly thin, corpse-like man sitting on Sampson's window-sill, but when he returns with the narrator the figure is gone. Sampson is missing the next day. Years later a body is found - with Sampson's coin - in the death-embrace of a second body, in a well that sits between four trees.
References
[edit]- ^ James, M.R. (1993). Collected ghost stories (Repr. ed.). Ware, Hertfordshire: Wordsworth. p. 100. ISBN 1853260533.
- ^ James, M.R. (1993). Collected ghost stories (Repr. ed.). Ware, Hertfordshire: Wordsworth. p. 101. ISBN 1853260533.
External links
[edit]
The full text of A School Story at Wikisource- An omnibus collection of James's short fiction at Standard Ebooks
A School Story public domain audiobook at LibriVox- Full text of "A School Story"
- A Podcast to the Curious: Episode 9 - A School Story
- Cast of Wonders: Episode 172 - A School Story
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