The Dare

Once there was a bunch of youngsters sitting in front of a fire telling ghost stories and trying to  scare each other. There had been a funeral in the village that day. an old man had been buried that afternoon, an old man noted for his crankiness and cussing. The boys had used to torment him, just to hear him rage in helpless fury. One of the group said if anyone walked on that old man's grave at midnight, he would reach up and grab him. oh, rot! no such thing! said a boy named jim. well, i dare you! said another. "I dare you!" "I dare you" they all joined in all right! said the bragging one. I don't believe in ghosts I'll go do it. I dare you I'll do it, and I'll stick my jackknife in the grave! and you can call go see it in the morning." so the party broke up. When midnight came, the boy named Jim started for the graveyard. It was awful quiet. The tombstones made long shadows in the moonlight. he was pretty scared. But he could not back out now, so he went on. Could the old geezer reach up and grab him? he wondered. he wished he had not been so smart and taken on this dare. but he went on. He came to the grave. He took out his jackknife and opened it. He knelt down and jabbed it blindly into the mound over the grave. Then he started to get up and run home. but he could not move! Something had grabbed him. he could not budge from the grave. The next day was a school day and Jim was went from his classes. The boys all wondered where he was. And at noontime several of them decided to go to the graveyard and see if Jim had left his jackknife sticking in the grave. When they got there they found Jim lying in a little heap on the new-made mound. In his haste and panic he had thrust the knife through his own coattails. He had pinned himself to the old man's grave, and had died of fright.