A School Story

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"A School Story"
Short story by M. R. James
More Ghost Stories - MR James.jpg
Country England
Language English
Genre(s) Horror
Publication
Publication date1911

"A School Story" is a ghost story by British writer M. R. James, included in his collection More Ghost Stories of an Antiquary .

Contents

Plot summary

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.

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References

  1. James, M.R. (1993). Collected ghost stories (Repr. ed.). Ware, Hertfordshire: Wordsworth. p. 100. ISBN   1853260533.
  2. James, M.R. (1993). Collected ghost stories (Repr. ed.). Ware, Hertfordshire: Wordsworth. p. 101. ISBN   1853260533.