d Man groaned.

"O, of course, I see her Majesty's ship Arethusa. Of course I am
familiar with her stern First Lieutenant, her eccentric Captain, her
one fascinating and several mischievous midshipmen. Of course I know
it's a splendid thing to see all this, and not to be seasick. O, there
the young gentlemen are going to play a trick on the purser. For God's
sake, let us go," and the unhappy man absolutely dragged the Goblin
away with him.

When they next halted, it was at the edge of a broad and boundless
prairie, in the middle of an oak opening.

"I see," said the Haunted Man, without waiting for his cue, but
mechanically, and as if he were repeating a lesson which the Goblin had
taught him,--"I see the Noble Savage. He is very fine to look at! But
I observe under his war-paint, feathers, and picturesque blanket, dirt,
disease, and an unsymmetrical contour. I observe beneath his inflated
rhetoric deceit and hypocrisy; beneath his physical hardihood, cruelty,
malice, and revenge. The Noble Savage is a humbug. I remarked the
same to Mr. Catlin."

"Come," said the phantom.

The Haunted Man sighed, and took out his watch. "Couldn't we do the
rest of this another time?"

"My hour is almost spent, irreverent being, but there is yet a chance
for your reformation. Come!"

Again they sped through the night, and again halted. The sound of
delicious but melancholy music fell upon their ears.

"I see," said the Haunted Man, with something of interest in his
manner,--"I see an old moss-covered manse beside a sluggish, flowing
river. I see weird shapes: witches, Puritans, clergymen, little
children, judges, mesmerized maidens, moving to the sound of melody
that thrills me with its sweetness and purity. But, although carried
along its calm and evenly flowing current, the shapes are strange and
frightful: an eating lichen gnaws at the heart of each. Not only the
clergymen, but witch, maiden, judge, and Puritan, all wear Scarlet
Letters of some kind burned upon their hearts. I am fascinated and
thrilled, but I feel a morbid sensitiveness creeping over me. I--I beg
your pardon." The Goblin was yawning frightfully. "Well, perhaps we
had better go."

"One more, and the last," said the Goblin.

They were moving home. Streaks of red were beginning to appear in the
eastern sky. Along the banks of the blackly flowing river by moorland
and stagnant fens, by low houses, clustering close to the water's edge,
li