Riding the marshes like a ghost

If you wake at midnight, and hear a horse's feet,
Don't go drawing back the blind, or looking in the street,
Them that asks no questions isn't told a lie.
Watch the wall, my darling, while the Gentlemen go by!

Walt Disney has just released their original 1964 production, The Scarecrow of Romney Marsh, on DVD. As a young reader I LOVED this story (especially good reading in the chill of autumn) and have begun to pass on these tales of adventure to my fifth grade class.

Originally airing in three parts on "Walt Disney's Wonderful World of Color," this thrilling adventure stars Patrick McGoohan as Dr. Syn, a kindly country vicar in 18th-century England. Only a few know that Syn is also the masked Scarecrow, notorious leader of a band of smugglers, who defends the villagers from unjust taxes and oppression by King George III's men.

Dr. Syn is based on the main character of the Russell Thorndyke novels.