Short Fiction · Chapter
A School Story explained
Two men in a smoking-room discuss private-school ghost stories, leading one to recount a strange experience from his schooldays.
What happens
Two men in a smoking-room discuss private-school ghost stories, leading one to recount a strange experience from his schooldays. A new master, Sampson, arrives and a boy named McLeod writes an inexplicable Latin sentence: 'Remember the well among the four yews.' McLeod falls ill, and later claims to have seen a thin, wet figure on Sampson's windowsill. Sampson disappears without trace. Years later, a gold coin with Sampson's initials and a date is found in a well containing two bodies.
Themes in this chapter
Supernatural and the Uncanny
The ghostly figure seen on Sampson's windowsill and the mysterious disappearance of Sampson evoke supernatural dread.
Folklore and Ancient Beliefs
The discussion of schoolboy ghost stories and the Latin phrase 'Remember the well among the four yews' tap into folklore and ancient symbolism.
Guardianship of Secrets
The narrator and McLeod never speak of what they saw, and the truth behind Sampson's fate remains hidden until the discovery of the well.
Characters to notice
- Sampson
New master at the school; possesses a gold Byzantine coin with his initials and a date; disappears after McLeod's strange vision.
- McLeod
Highland boy and friend of the narrator; writes a mysterious Latin sentence; falls ill; claims to see a figure on Sampson's windowsill.
- Mr. Garrett
Narrator of the main story; a former pupil at the school; recalls the events involving Sampson and McLeod.
Key passages
“I wonder if I can remember the staple ones that I was told. First, there was the house with a room in which a series of people insisted on passing a night; and each of them in the morning was found kneeling in a corner, and had just time to say, 'I've seen it,' and died.”
The narrator recalls classic ghost stories from his youth, such as the tale of a room where successive visitors die after glimpsing something terrifying.
Sets the context of schoolboy folklore and the common ghost stories of the era.
“Memento putei inter quatuor taxos.”
Remember the well among the four yew trees.
The mysterious Latin sentence written by McLeod, which foreshadows the discovery of the well and bodies.
“I'm not at all sure that he was alive.”
McLeod doubts the figure he saw on Sampson's windowsill was a living person.
Highlights the supernatural nature of the apparition.