"A School Story"
Short story by M. R. James
CountryEngland
LanguageEnglish
Genre(s)Horror
Publication
Publication date1911

"A School Story" is a ghost story by British writer M. R. James, included in his collection More Ghost Stories of an Antiquary.

Plot summary

Two men are discussing the folklore of the private schools they attended. One tells of a Latin teacher named Mr. Sampson who kept a Byzantine coin that he would show his students. The narrator's friend gives the teacher a strange message in Latin which translates to "remember the well among the four yews",[1] though he doesn't know why he wrote it. Later another paper shows up translating to "If you don't come to me, I'll come to you",[2] and it visibly worries Sampson. Later at night the narrator's friend sees a horribly thin, corpse-like man sitting on Sampson's window-sill, but when he returns with the narrator he's gone. Sampson is missing the next day. Years later a body is found - with Sampson's coin - in the death-embrace of a second body, in a well that sits between four trees.

References

  1. ↑ James, M.R. (1993). Collected ghost stories (Repr. ed.). Ware, Hertfordshire: Wordsworth. p. 100. ISBN 1853260533.
  2. ↑ James, M.R. (1993). Collected ghost stories (Repr. ed.). Ware, Hertfordshire: Wordsworth. p. 101. ISBN 1853260533.


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