When the bumpkin got to the housekeeper's room, he found Peter de
Groodt, and several other true believers, ready to receive him. Here
he indemnified himself for the restraint he had suffered in the study,
and opened a budget of stories about the haunted house that astonished
all his hearers. The housekeeper believed them all, if it was only
to spite the doctor for having received her intelligence so
uncourteously. Peter de Groodt matched them with many a wonderful
legend of the times of the Dutch dynasty, and of the Devil's
Stepping-stones; and of the pirate that was hanged at Gibbet Island,
and continued to swing there at night long after the gallows was taken
down; and of the ghost of the unfortunate Governor Leisler, who was
hanged for treason, which haunted the old fort and the government
house. The gossiping knot dispersed, each charged with direful
intelligence. The sexton disburdened himself at a vestry meeting that
was held that very day, and the black cook forsook her kitchen, and
spent half the day at the street pump, that gossiping place of
servants, dealing forth the news to all that came for water. In a
little time, the whole town was in a buzz with tales about the haunted
house.
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