Three authors reveal the obscure corners of the occult. In LeFanu's Dickon the Devil the narrator discovers that the sinister ghosts of the past have never left Barwyke Hall.
Rudyard Kipling tells the story of a man who disappears mysteriously.
In Hawthorne's The Minister's Black Veil, the Puritan Reverend Hooper is plagued by a terrible secret sin that forces him to wear a black veil.

The Legend of Slappy Hooper is an American tall tale, which originally appeared in print as part of a WPA-sponsored collection. Slappy, "the world's biggest, fastest, bestest sign painter," has an oversize problem: the signs he creates are too darn lifelike. His picture of a rose attracts bees, while a sign featuring a hot summer sun melts snow. One catastrophe follows another, until Slappy paints himself out of a job. On the verge of chucking his paint kit into the river, the despairing hero is approached by Michael, from the Heavenly Sign Company, and hired to paint the world's sunrises and sunsets.