Lesson 30
The death of a ghost
幽灵之死
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1Lesson 30
2The death of a ghost
3Why did the two brothers keep the secret?
4For years, villagers believed that Endley farm was haunted.
5The farm was owned by two brothers, Joe and Bob Cox.
6They employed a few farmhands, but no one was willing to work there long.
7Every time a worker gave up his job, he told the same story.
8Farm labourers said that they always woke up to find that work had been done overnight.
9Hay had been cut and cowsheds had been cleaned.
10A farm worker, who stayed up all night, claimed to have seen a figure cutting corn in the moonlight.
11In time, it became an accepted fact
12that the Cox brothers employed a conscientious ghost that did most of their work for them.
13No one suspected that there might be someone else on the farm who had never been seen.
14This was indeed the case.
15A short time ago, villagers were astonished to learn that the ghost of Endley had died.
16Everyone went to the funeral, for the 'ghost' was none other than Eric Cox,
17a third brother who was supposed to have died as a young man.
18After the funeral, Joe and Bob revealed a secret which they had kept for over fifty years.
19Eric had been the eldest son of the family,
20very much older than his two brothers.
21He had been obliged to join the army during the Second World War.
22As he hated army life, he decided to desert his regiment.
23When he learnt that he would be sent abroad,
24he returned to the farm and his father hid him until the end of the war.
25Fearing the authorities, Eric remained in hiding after the war as well.
26His father told everybody that Eric had been killed in action.
27The only other people who knew the secret were Joe and Bob.
28They did not even tell their wives.
29When their father died they thought it their duty to keep Eric in hiding.
30All these years, Eric had lived as a recluse.
31He used to sleep during the day and work at night,
32quite unaware of the fact that he had become the ghost of Endley.
33When he died, however, his brothers found it impossible to keep the secret any longer.