petty larcenies. And in order that these small depredations should
be hidden, she used to play the ghost upon us, and I suppose it to be a
literal fact that many and many a time when she stole back to our room,
and found us awake and quaking, she must have driven us into a clean
swoon of terror by the very simple expedient of drawing up the hinder
part of her nightdress, and making a ghostly head-dress of it about her
face. That I fainted many a time out of sheer horror at this apparition,
I am quite certain; but the sense of real fear was, after all, left in
reserve. I had rambled alone, as children will, along the High Street on
a lovely summer day, each sight, and scent, and sound of which comes to
me at this moment with a curious distinctness, and I had turned at
the corner; had wandered along New Street, which by that time was
old-fashioned enough to seem aged, even to my eyes; had diverged into
Walsall Street, which was then the shortest way to the real country, and
on to the Ten Score; past the Pearl Well, where Cromwell's troops once
stopped to drink; through Church Vale, and on to Perry Bar, and even
past the Horns of Queeslett, beyond which lay a plain road to Sutton
Coldfield, a place full of wonder and magic, and already memorable to
a reading child through its association with one Shakespeare, and a Sir
John Falstaff, who afterwards became more intimate companions.

I had never been so far from home before, and the sense of adventure was
very strong upon me. By-and-bye, I found myself in what I still remember
as a sort of primeval forest, though a broad country lane was cut
between the umbrageous shade on either side. I saw a rabbit cross the
road, and I saw a slow weasel track him, and heard the squeak of despair
which bunny uttered when the fascinating pursuer, as I now imagine,
first fixed upon him what Mr Swinburne calls "the bitter blossom of
a kiss." I very clearly remember an adder, with a bunch of its young,
disporting in the sunlight; but there was nothing to alarm a child,
and everything to charm and enlist the fancy. The sunlight fell broadly
along the route. Birds were singing, and butterflies were fanning
their feathery, irresponsible way from shade to shade. I saw my first
dragonfly that day, and tried to catch him in my cap, but he evaded me.
All on a sudden, the prospect changed. A cloud floated over the sun,
and a sort of preliminary waiting horror took possession of the harmless
woods on ei