Condemned To The Noose

Charles Montgomery Skinner was an American writer, mostly known as a collector of North American folklore. “Condemned To The Noose” is a short story, entered in the collection “Myth and legends of our own land”. The narration is about Ralph Sutherland, a landowner, who is a man of morose and violent disposition. His servant, a Scotch girl, is virtually a slave, inasmuch as she is bounded to work for him without pay until she will refund to him her passage-money to this country. Becoming weary of bondage and of the tempers of her master, the girl runs away. The man sits off in a raging chase, overtakes her, ties by the wrists to his horse's tail and begins the homeward journey. The poor girl dies, and Ralph Sutherland tries to assure the community in infelicitous occasion, but finally he will be punished for his cruelty.