sn't it?"

"Yes," he answered, turning it to and fro admiringly in his hand, "you
are the first ghost I ever knew to pay in advance, and plenty of them
go to and fro through here. Such a pretty thing is well worth a
meal--if, indeed, you can stomach our rough fare. Here, you woman
within," he called to the lady whom I presume was his wife, "here is a
gentleman from the nether regions who wants some breakfast and has paid
in advance. Give him some of your best, for he has paid well."

"And what," said a female voice from inside, "what if I refused to
serve another of these plaguy wanderers you are always foisting upon
me?"

"Don't mind her tongue, sir. It's the worst part of her, though she is
mighty proud of it. Go in and she will see you do not come out
hungry," and the Thither man returned calmly to his honey stick.

"Come on, you Soul-with-a-man's-stomach," growled the woman, and too
hungry to be particular about the tone of invitation, I strode into the
parlour of that strange refreshment place. The woman was the first I
had seen of the outer race, and better than might have been expected in
appearance. Big, strong, and ruddy, she was a mental shock after the
slender slips of girlhood on the far side of the water, half a dozen of
whom she could have carried off without effort in her long arms. Yet
there was about her the credential of rough health, the dignity of
muscle, an upright carriage, an animal grace of movement, and withal a
comely though strongly featured face, which pleased me at once, and
later on I had great cause to remember her with gratitude. She eyed me
sulkily for a minute, then her frown gradually softened, and the
instinctive love of the woman for the supernatural mastered her other
feelings.

"Is that how you looked in another world?" she asked.

"Yes, exactly, cap to boots. What do you think of the attire, ma'am?"

"Not much," replied the good woman frankly. "It could not have been
becoming even when new, and you appear as though you had taken a muddy
road since then. What did you die of?"

"I will tell you so much as this, madam--that what I am like to die of
now is hunger, plain, unvarnished hunger, so, in Heaven's name, get out
what you have and let me fall-to, for my last meal was yesterday
morning."

Whereat, with a shrug of her shoulders at the eccentricities of nether
folk, the woman went to the rear of the house, and presently came back
with a meal which showed her h