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"Nine Yards of Other Cloth" is a fantasy story by Manly Wade Wellman. Originally published in the November 1958 issue of ''The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction'', it was nominated for, but did not win, the 1959 Hugo Award for Best Short Story. The story is one of many that Wellman wrote in his "John the Balladeer" series (also known as the "Silver John" series). ==Plot summary== The story is set in North Carolina. When it begins, the reader finds John on a wooded hill, trying to outdistance an approaching person. The story line then flashes back to earlier events. The reader learns that John has met Shull Cobart, an unlikable man who is unusually proficient at playing the fiddle. Afterwards, John finds himself walking through the woods to Hosea Hollow, a place considered by the local populace to be haunted. He comes upon a cabin that is the home of Evadare, a single woman who had worked for Cobart but who ran off to live in the hollow after rejecting Cobart's romantic advances. The same day that John and Evadare meet, they are visited at the cabin by Cobart. In order to have Evadare to himself, Cobart reveals the supernatural power of his fiddle and uses that power to force John to join him outside to meet Kalu, the demon that actually does haunt the hollow. Unbeknownst to Cobart, but figured out by John, Kalu has redeemed itself and is now a force for good. Kalu kills Cobart, thus releasing John from the fiddle's spell. Afterwards, Evadare asks John to live with her in the cabin. But John does not want to give up his wandering ways and runs off. It is Evadare who was the person chasing after John at the beginning of the story. The story's title is a reference to the amount of cloth that would typically be used for a burial shroud.〔This is stated in the story, in the part that relates the meeting of all three main characters in Evadare's cabin. Cobart has offered to make John a suit using nine yards of cloth, to which John replies "'Nobody needs nine yards for but one kind of suit ... and that's no suit at all.' 'A shroud', said Evadare, barely making herself heard ... ."〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Nine Yards of Other Cloth」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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