Fifty-Cent Piece
A New York Ghost Story
retold by
S. E. Schlosser
There is a story told in Troy and Albany about a couple returning home from a trip to New England. They were driving home in a carriage, and were somewhere near Spiegletown when the light failed and they knew they would have to seek shelter for the night.
The husband spied a light through the trees and turned their horse into a small lane leading up a hill. A pleasant little house stood at the crest, and an old man and his wife met the couple at the door. They were in nightclothes and were obviously about to turn in, but they welcomed the travelers and offered them a room. The old woman bustled about making tea and offering freshly-baked cakes. Then the travelers were shown to their room. The husband wanted to pay the old couple for their lodgings, but the old lady shook her head and the old man refused any payment for such a small service to their fellow New Yorkers.
The travelers awoke early and tiptoed out of the house, leaving a shiny fifty-cent coin in the center of the kitchen table where the old couple could not miss it. The husband hitched up the horse and they went a few miles before they broke their fast at a little restaurant in Spiegletown.
The husband mention the nice old couple to the owner of the restaurant and the man turned pale.
"Where did you say that house was?" he asked. The husband described the location in detail.
"You must be mistaken," said the restaurant owner. "That house was destroyed three years ago by a fire that killed the Brown family."
"I don't believe it," the husband said flatly. "Mr. and Mrs. Brown were alive and well last night."
After debating for a few more minutes, the couple and the restaurant owner drove the carriage back out of town towards the old Brown place. They turned into the lane, which was overgrown with weeds, and climbed the hill to the crest. There they found a burned out shell of a house that had obviously not sheltered anyone for a long time.
"I must have missed the track," said the husband. And then his wife gave a terrified scream and fainted into his arms. As he caught her, the husband looked into the ruin and saw a burnt table with a shiny fifty-cent piece lying in the center.
A young man plays Tug-of-War with a ghost in an old house near Albany in Spooky New York by S.E. Schlosser.
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Comments
this is great! sends chillz up my spine :<
Posted by: lolcupcake | July 10, 2010 03:28 PM
I've read this before but in a different version! The couple leaves 2 see the husbands parents and they leeve 40 cents
Posted by: Scarystorieslover115 | July 28, 2010 05:20 PM
read this story before their all diffrent but it sent a chill up my spine
Posted by: sophie | July 31, 2010 02:58 PM
weird do u think tht could really happen?
Posted by: sarah mattingly | August 2, 2010 09:41 PM
ive heard ten jillion times this story rox!and this version is extremely similar to the ones ive heard but i like this one too.
Posted by: taylor | August 5, 2010 01:07 PM
the fone rang when it said "ruin" and i ran out of the room. btw im from nyc.
Posted by: nikki | August 25, 2010 02:58 PM
i peed my pants
Posted by: miqdad | September 10, 2010 06:55 AM
that was so mysterious i loved it
Posted by: Anonymous | September 26, 2010 09:34 AM
Damn scary
Posted by: Anonymous | September 28, 2010 05:56 PM
i dont get it?
Posted by: holly | October 8, 2010 09:03 PM
A: that's really creepy
B: very impressive nikki
Posted by: Michael | October 21, 2010 06:29 PM
Perfect for telling to little kids
Posted by: Anonymous | October 28, 2010 11:31 AM
It's just perfect. I liked it very much!
Posted by: alexia | January 13, 2011 11:21 AM
this was kinda creepy, but i dont get it.....
Posted by: amber | January 15, 2011 08:10 AM
I HAD A SCARY GHOST ENCOUNTER. I was sitting at the computer in my friend's basement and i heard a loud crash upstairs followed by a scream. But my friend was next to me but he said he would go check it out. He never came back down. Turned out that a divorced couple used to live in his house and the man killed his wife and then hung himself in the living room. So about 10 minutes later Billy ran downstairs screaming BRIAN IS DEAD! I ran upstairs to find brian laying dead in the living room. He was trying to sneak in without scaring billy cause he liked to do that but the ghost did not like trespassers who weren't invited in. Brian's body was buried and i stayed the night at billy's then in the morning i went to the living room and saw blood all over and brian's ghost was standing there....
Posted by: tyler | January 24, 2011 09:16 PM
super
Posted by: Anonymous | January 27, 2011 03:21 PM
nice story.....the mr and mrs brown were sooooo kind...
Posted by: Anonymous | April 1, 2011 05:50 AM
love it lol :)
Posted by: shea mcneal | April 5, 2011 11:16 AM
Omg this is so scary!!
Posted by: Makena | May 10, 2011 12:18 PM
Awesome. It'd be creepy if that ever really happened. It's like the house itself is a ghost and it presented itself to the couple as reality. I wonder If they slept on ashes, but thought they were sleeping in a bed. Either way that was a really good story.
Posted by: Clara | June 28, 2011 03:24 PM