s,
that have little reason to be out at night, ken little or nothing about
it. And some think it grand to have a ghost so long as they're no in the
way of coming across it. If you had been tellt the story to begin with,
maybe ye would have thought so yourself."

This was true enough, though it did not throw any light upon my
perplexity. If we had heard of it to start with, it is possible that all
the family would have considered the possession of a ghost a distinct
advantage. It is the fashion of the times. We never think what a risk it
is to play with young imaginations, but cry out, in the fashionable
jargon, "A ghost!--nothing else was wanted to make it perfect." I should
not have been above this myself. I should have smiled, of course, at the
idea of the ghost at all, but then to feel that it was mine would have
pleased my vanity. Oh, yes, I claim no exemption. The girls would have
been delighted. I could fancy their eagerness, their interest, and
excitement. No; if we had been told, it would have done no good,--we
should have made the bargain all the more eagerly, the fools that we are.
"And there has been no attempt to investigate it," I said, "to see what
it really is?"

"Eh, Cornel," said the coachman's wife, "wha would investigate, as ye
call it, a thing that nobody believes in? Ye would be the laughin'-stock
of a' the country-side, as my man says."

"But you believe in it," I said, turning upon her hastily. The woman was
taken by surprise. She made a step backward out of my way.

"Lord, Cornel, how ye frichten a body! Me!--there's awfu' strange things
in this world. An unlearned person doesna ken what to think. But the
minister and the gentry they just laugh in your face. Inquire into the
thing that is not! Na, na, we just let it be."

"Come with me, Jarvis," I said hastily, "and we'll make an attempt at
least. Say nothing to the men or to anybody. I'll come back after dinner,
and we'll make a serious attempt to see what it is, if it is anything. If
I hear it,--which I doubt,--you may be sure I shall never rest till I
make it out. Be ready for me about ten o'clock."

"Me, Cornel!" Jarvis said, in a faint voice. I had not been looking at
him in my own preoccupation, but when I did so, I found that the greatest
change had come over the fat and ruddy coachman. "Me, Cornel!" he
repeated, wiping the perspiration from his brow. His ruddy face hung in
flabby folds, his knees knocked together, his voice seemed h