rn out by long loss of sleep, his
reveries would have soon merged into slumber's still wilder dreams, had
he not rallied himself, and departed on his way, fearful of forgetting
himself in an emergency like the present. It now occurred to him that,
well as his disguise had served him in escaping from the mansion of
Squire Woodcock, that disguise might fatally endanger him if he should
be discovered in it abroad. He might pass for a ghost at night, and
among the relations and immediate friends of the gentleman deceased; but
by day, and among indifferent persons, he ran no small risk of being
apprehended for an entry-thief. He bitterly lamented his omission in not
pulling on the Squire's clothes over his own, so that he might now have
reappeared in his former guise.

As meditating over this difficulty, he was passing along, suddenly he
saw a man in black standing right in his path, about fifty yards
distant, in a field of some growing barley or wheat. The gloomy stranger
was standing stock-still; one outstretched arm, with weird intimation
pointing towards the deceased Squire's abode. To the brooding soul of
the now desolate Israel, so strange a sight roused a supernatural
suspicion. His conscience morbidly reproaching him for the terrors he
had bred in making his escape from the house, he seemed to see in the
fixed gesture of the stranger something more than humanly significant.
But somewhat of his intrepidity returned; he resolved to test the
apparition. Composing itself to the same deliberate stateliness with
which it had paced the hall, the phantom of Squire Woodcock firmly,
advanced its cane, and marched straight forward towards the mysterious
stranger.

As he neared him, Israel shrunk. The dark coat-sleeve flapped on the
bony skeleton of the unknown arm. The face was lost in a sort of ghastly
blank. It was no living man.

But mechanically continuing his course, Israel drew still nearer and saw
a scarecrow.

Not a little relieved by the discovery, our adventurer paused, more
particularly to survey so deceptive an object, which seemed to have been
constructed on the most efficient principles; probably by some broken
down wax figure costumer. It comprised the complete wardrobe of a
scarecrow, namely: a cocked hat, bunged; tattered coat; old velveteen
breeches; and long worsted stockings, full of holes; all stuffed very
nicely with straw, and skeletoned by a frame-work of poles. There was a
great flapped pocket to t