{"product_id":"2940013691575","title":"No Haid Pawn","description":"It was a ghostly place in broad daylight, if the glimmer that stole in\u003cbr\u003ethrough the dense forest that surrounded it when the sun was directly\u003cbr\u003eoverhead deserved this delusive name. At any other time it was--why,\u003cbr\u003ewe were afraid even to talk about it! and as to venturing within its\u003cbr\u003egloomy borders, it was currently believed among us that to do so was\u003cbr\u003eto bring upon the intruder certain death. I knew every foot of ground,\u003cbr\u003ewet and dry, within five miles of my father's house, except this\u003cbr\u003eplantation, for I had hunted by day and night every field, forest, and\u003cbr\u003emarsh within that radius; but the swamp and \"ma'shes\" that surrounded\u003cbr\u003ethis place I had never invaded. The boldest hunter on the plantation\u003cbr\u003ewould call off his dogs and go home if they struck a trail that\u003cbr\u003ecrossed the sobby boundary-line of \"No Haid Pawn.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Jack 'my lanterns\" and \"evil sperits\" only infested those woods, and\u003cbr\u003ethe earnest advice of those whom we children acknowledged to know most\u003cbr\u003eabout them was, \"Don't you never go nigh dyah honey; hit's de evil-\u003cbr\u003esperitest place in dis wull.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eHad not Big William and Cephas and Poliam followed their dogs in there\u003cbr\u003eone night, and cut down a tree in which they had with their own eyes\u003cbr\u003eseen the coon, and lo! when it fell \"de warn no mo' coon dyah 'n a\u003cbr\u003edog!\" and the next tree they had \"treed in\" not only had no coon in\u003cbr\u003eit, but when it was cut down it had fallen on Poliam and broken his\u003cbr\u003eleg. So the very woods were haunted. From this time they were\u003cbr\u003eabandoned to the \"jack 'my lanterns\" and ghosts, and another shadow\u003cbr\u003ewas added to No Haid Pawn.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe place was as much cut off from the rest of the country as if a sea\u003cbr\u003ehad divided it. The river, with marshy banks, swept around it in a\u003cbr\u003ewide horseshoe on three sides, and when the hammocks dammed it up it\u003cbr\u003ewashed its way straight across and scoured out a new bed for itself,\u003cbr\u003ecompletely isolating the whole plantation.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe owners of it, if there were any, which was doubtful, were aliens,\u003cbr\u003eand in my time it had not been occupied for forty years. The negroes\u003cbr\u003edeclared that it was \"gin up\" to the \"ha'nts an' evil sperits,\" and\u003cbr\u003ethat no living being could live there. It had grown up in forest and\u003cbr\u003ehad wholly reverted to original marsh. The road that once ran through\u003cbr\u003ethe swamp had long since been choked up, and the trees were as thick\u003cbr\u003eand the jungle as dense now, in its track, as in the adjacent \"ma'sh.\"\u003cbr\u003eOnly one path remained. That, it was currently believed by the entire\u003cbr\u003eportion of the population who speculated on the subject, was kept open\u003cbr\u003eby the evil spirits. Certain it was that no human foot ever trod the\u003cbr\u003enarrow, tortuous line that ran through the brakes as deviously as the\u003cbr\u003enoiseless, stagnant ditches that curved through the jungle, where the\u003cbr\u003emusk-rats played and the moccasin slept unmolested. Yet there it lay,\u003cbr\u003eplain and well-defined, month after month and year after year, as No\u003cbr\u003eHaid Pawn itself stood, amid its surrounding swamps, all undisturbed\u003cbr\u003eand unchanging.","brand":"WDS Publishing","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47083147722992,"sku":"2940013691575","price":1.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/2940013691575_p0.jpg?v=1763584424","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/2940013691575","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}