something dreadful.

It was not until they had come within sight of home that Johnnie
ventured to inquire:

"Say, Eph, what is a ha'nt?"

"Huh! What is ha'nts? Why, sonny, you mean to tell me you don't know
what ha'nts is?"

"Not exactly; sompin' like wildcats, ain't they?"

"Well, I'll be confounded! Wildcats! Not by a long shot;" and Eph broke
into the soft chuckle which always preceded his explanations. They
reached the orchard fence, and, seating himself squarely on the topmost
rail, Eph began impressively:

"Ha'nts is the remains of dead folks--more 'specially them that's been
assinated, er, that is, kilt--understan'? They're kind o' like sperrits,
ye know. After so long a time they take to comin' back to yarth an'
ha'ntin' the precise spot where they wuz murdered. They always come
after dark, an' the diffrunt shapes they take on is supprisin'. I have
seed ha'nts that looked like sheep, an' ha'nts that looked like human
persons; but lots of 'em ye cain't see a-tall, bein' invisible, as the
sayin' is. Now, fer all we know, they may be a ha'nt settin' right here
betwixt us, this minute!"

With this solemn declaration Johnnie shivered and began edging closer to
Eph, until restrained and appalled by the thought that he might actually
sit on the unseen spirit by such movement.

"But do they hurt people, Eph?" he asked anxiously.

Eph gave vent to another chuckle.

"Not if ye understan' the'r ways," he observed sagely. "If ye let 'em
alone an' don't go foolin' aroun' the'r ha'ntin'-groun' they'll never
harm ye. But don't ye never trifle with no ha'nt, sonny. I knowed a
feller't thought 'twuz smart to hector 'em an' said he wuzn't feared.
Onct he throwed a rock at one--"

Here Eph paused.

"What h-happened?" gasped Johnnie.

"In one year from that time," replied Eph gruesomely, "that there
feller's cow wuz hit by lightnin'; in three year his hoss kicked him an'
busted a rib; an' in seven year he wuz a corpse!"

The power of this horrible example was too much for Johnnie.

"Don't you reckon it's bedtime?" he suggested tremblingly.

Thenceforth for many months Johnnie led a haunted life. Ghosts glowered
at him from cellar and garret. Specters slunk at his heels, phantoms
flitted through the barn. Twilight teemed with horrors, and midnight,
when he awoke at that hour, made of his bedroom a veritable Brocken.

It was vain for his parents to expostulate with him. Was one not bound
to believe one's own eye