A School Story by M. R. James
A SCHOOL STORY by M. R. James www.storiesforuu.blogspot.com Two men in a smoking-room were talking of their private-school days. "At our school," said A., "we had a ghost's footmark on the staircase. " " What was it like?" "Oh, very unconvincing. Just the shape of a shoe, with a square toe, if I remember right. The staircase was a stone one. I never heard any story about the thing. That seems odd, when you come to think of it. Why didn't somebody invent one, I wonder?" "You never can tell with little boys. They have a mythology of their own. There's a subject for you, by the way - "The Folklore of Private Schools." "Yes; the crop is rather scanty, though. I imagine, if you were to investigate the cycle of ghost stories, for instance, which the boys at private schools tell each other, they would all turn out to be highly-compressed versions of stories out of books." "Nowadays the St...
