ns. "With God all things good are
possible. I would not add a single pain to his misery. Who of us--"

"There! there, see that light in the bushes yonder!" screamed Nancy
Nimblet, who had been frightened by the idea that they were watched,
and had been looking around the camp for sights of alarm. "That light
yonder!--what is it?--what is it?"

"A Jack-o'-lantern, may be, and may be somethin' wuss," said Colwell,
rising.

"A ball of fire!--what can it be? see, it comes towards us!" added
Uncle Walter.

"It's right where we found little Clinton's hat," cried Mrs. Fabens,
pale with terror. "O, dear, what can it be? He couldn't have been
murdered, my dear Clinton couldn't have been murdered, and that
appeared to reveal his fate!"

"I'll warrant that's it!" answered Teezle. "Square Peasley seen a
light, and heerd a gugglin' groan where the pedlar had his throat cut
in Cloverdale, you know."

"See there! see there!--it comes nearer!--look at it now; it has eyes,
and ears!--see its awful nose and mouth," cried Aunt Polly Waldron.

"What shall we do?" screamed Nancy Nimblet, all in a tremble. "It will
hurt us!--it will kill us! where shall I go?"

"Be quiet, be calm, it cannot hurt you," said Fabens soothingly; "it
can't hurt any one. God wouldn't let it."

"Awful!" shrieked Mr. and Mrs. Flaxman in one nasal; scream, "let us
run, let us run!"

"It's an evil spirit," said Wilson.

"The old pot-metal Cuss himself has come for us!" cried Uncle Walter.
"If I know anything about the Devil, that's him; that's his head and
ears, and eyes and teeth, I'll bet a turkey they are!"

"No, no, it cannot be an evil spirit or the Devil," said Fabens,
calmly. "The Devil would not appear in such a form to us, and God will
guard us from evil spirits."

An agony of terror shook the whole company. Stern and brave Uncle
Walter, who could stand before wolves and bears; who could beard the
fierce panther in his den, and count his snarling teeth,--even he
believed in ghosts, and was afraid of sights and apparitions. It was a
horrible object, spirit, devil, or whatever it might be. It looked
like a ball of fire, and had features of a grim half-human thing, with
huge ears, a wide mouth and grinning rows of monstrous teeth; and they
fancied they saw a black body and long tail below it. As they gazed in
a transport of terror, Fabens escaped unobserved from the company,
passed softly around through the woods, and coming up beh