rtake to do.'"

"'Oh, no, no,' he answered; 'you had better not undertake to mend a
harness, or you will be obliged, after this, to say that you have failed
in one thing; besides, I can do this very well alone.'"

"'I have a great mind to take hold and mend it, just to show you that my
boast was not an idle one,' said I; 'but if you are determined to scorn
my offered assistance, I will run back, and take a survey of the
interior of the old church we passed a few moments since.'"

"'You will not see much,' the old clergyman called out after me; 'for,
as you see, the wooden shutters are kept closed during the week, and it
is almost total darkness inside.'"

"However, on I ran down the hill, and was soon at the door of the old
barn-like building. The door was not fastened, and I opened it, and
entered the church. At first, the darkness seemed intense, broken only
by little streaks of sunlight which streamed in through the small,
crescent-shaped holes in the shutters; but at length my eye became
accustomed to the darkness, and I could begin to distinguish the rude
seats and aisles, and even to see, at the end of the church, an
elevation which I knew must be the pulpit. Determined to see all that
was to be seen, I made my way along the aisle, ascended the pulpit
stairs, and had just laid my hand on the door, when a tall, white figure
suddenly rose up in the pulpit, and laid a cold hand on mine. I believe
I shrieked; but I was filled with such an indescribable horror, that I
know not what I did, when a hollow voice said:"

"'Don't be afraid; I will not harm you.'"

"I snatched my hand from the cold grasp which held it, and fled from the
church. I remember nothing more, till I opened my eyes, and found the
old clergyman bathing my face with water. He had become alarmed at my
long absence, and, on coming back to seek me, had found me lying on my
face, on the grass, in front of the old church. We had been riding again
for some time, before I summoned resolution to tell the old gentleman
what I had seen in the church. He complimented me by saying, that though
his acquaintance with me had been short, he was much mistaken in me, if
I was a person to be deceived by the imagination; and he said he much
regretted that I had not mentioned the cause of my fright before we left
the old church, as it was always best to ascertain at once the true
nature of any such apparently frightful object."

"'We have no time to turn back now,'