As for the death-watches, they are
out of number; and there is never a fire lighted but a coffin flies
out."

"And this story of a ghost of a coffin, with four ghosts to bear it,
that goes up and down in the village all night long," said Hester, "I
really do not wonder that it shakes the nerves of the sick to hear of
it. They say that no one can stop those bearers, or get any answer from
them: but on they glide, let what will be in their way."

"Come, tell me," said Dr Levitt, "have not you yourself looked out for
that sight?"

Hester acknowledged that she had seen a real substantial coffin, carried
by human bearers, pass down the middle of the street, at an hour past
midnight; the removal of a body from a house where it had died, she
supposed, to another whence it was to be buried. This coffin and the
ghostly one she took to be one and the same.

Dr Levitt mentioned instances of superstition, which could scarcely
have been believed by him, if related by another.

"Do you know the Platts?" he inquired of Hope. "Have you seen the poor
woman that lies ill there with her child?"

"Yes: what a state of destitution they are in!"

"At the very time that that woman and her child are lying on shavings,
begged from the carpenter's yard, her mother finds means to fee the
fortune-teller in the lane for reading a dream. The fortune-teller
dooms the child, and speaks doubtfully of the mother."

"I could not conceive the reason why no one of the family would do
anything for the boy. I used what authority I could, while I was there;
but I fear he has been left to his fate since. The neighbours will not
enter the house."

"What neighbours?" said Margaret. "You have never so much as asked me."

"You are our main stay at home, Margaret. I could ask no more of you
than you do here."

Margaret was now putting the dinner on the table. It consisted of a
bowl of potatoes, salt, the loaf and butter, and a pitcher of water.
Dr Levitt said grace, and they sat down, without one word of apology
from host or hostess. Though Dr Levitt had not been prepared for an
evidence like this of the state of affairs in the family, he had known
enough of their adversity to understand the case now at a glance. No
one ate more heartily than he; and the conversation went on as if a
sumptuous feast had been spread before the party.

"I own myself disappointed," said Hope, "in finding among our neighbours
so little disposition to help eac