king
at me with singular earnestness. Deborah was in the room; and, when
she saw the buckle, she quietly said that it had been on the
window-ledge the day before, and must have slipped out. "I found it
down by the doorstep in the grass," said I humbly; and then I offered
Lady Ferry some strawberries which I had picked for her on a broad
green leaf, and came away again.

A day or two after this, while my dream was still fresh in my mind, I
went with Martha to her own home, which was a mile or two distant,--a
comfortable farmhouse for those days, where I was always made welcome.
The servants were all very kind to me: as I recall it now, they seemed
to have a pity for me, because I was the only child perhaps. I was
very happy, that is certain, and I enjoyed my childish amusements as
heartily as if there were no unfathomable mysteries or perplexities or
sorrows anywhere in the world.

I was sitting by the fireplace at Martha's, and her grandmother, who
was very old, and who was fast losing her wits, had been talking to me
about Madam. I do not remember what she said, at least, it made little
impression; but her grandson, a worthless fellow, sauntered in, and
began to tell a story of his own, hearing of whom we spoke. "I was
coming home late last night," said he, "and, as I was in that dark
place along by the Noroway pines, old Lady Ferry she went by me, and I
was near scared to death. She looked fearful tall--towered way up
above me. Her face was all lit up with blue light, and her feet didn't
touch the ground. She wasn't taking steps, she wasn't walking, but
movin' along like a sail-boat before the wind. I dodged behind some
little birches, and I was scared she'd see me; but she went right out
o' sight up the road. She ain't mortal."

"Don't scare the child with such foolishness," said his aunt
disdainfully. "You'll be seein' worse things a-dancin' before your
eyes than that poor, harmless old creatur' if you don't quit the ways
you've been following lately. If that was last night, you were too
drunk to see any thing;" and the fellow muttered, and went out,
banging the door. But the story had been told, and I was stiffened and
chilled with fright; and all the way home I was in terror, looking
fearfully behind me again and again.

When I saw cousin Agnes, I felt safer, and since cousin Matthew was
not at home, and we were alone, I could not resist telling her what I
had heard. She listened to me kindly, and seemed so