In 'The Phantoms of the Foot-Bridge, and Other Stories,' Mary Noailles Murfree, under the pseudonym Charles Egbert Craddock, constructs a vivid tableau of the early 19th century American pastoral setting through her assemblage of short fiction. The stories dance with idiosyncratic characters whose eccentricities are the source of amusement and insight. Murfree offers a kaleidoscope of rural narrat...