| The Kickin Grass Band | |
| "The Ghost of Nathaniel Carter" | |
On the banks of the Wallenpaupack, on a cold November night I saw a stranger walking towards me and he carried a large knife, his shoulders heavy with years of burden, his face sunken and depressed. In that moment a window opened and the present became the past. In November, as the moonlight is shining through the Paupack valley walks the ghost of Nathaniel Carter searching for his long lost family. All alone on the Wallenpaupack the Carter family built their home--a log cabin hewn from the forest, with a chimney of fieldstone. When summer days began to shorten the family gathered beans and corn. Nathaniel Carter went off hunting leaving his wife to tend the farm. From the forest stole an Indian in his war paint, creeping softly ever nearer, until she saw him, then he gave the war cry of the Cherokee. He killed her there and killed her infant, burned her home, drove off her cattle. Her sons and daughter watched the murder, and were taken captive in the battle. Nathaniel Carter, late returning found his wife dead, his home in flames. The Indian chief, the Great Paupacken, saw the smoke and heard the screams. His heart was sore and aching for he loved his Carter neighbor, so white and red man formed a posse, they tracked the Cherokee together. That November, as the moonlight was shining through the Paupack valley, seven died along side Carter, as with their knives they fought the Cherokee. After this, the Wallenpaupack saw upon it’s clear dark waters only canoes of the Paupack Indians, and the ghost of Nathaniel Carter. |
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