and picked up a skull. Immediately the phantom exclaimed, in a deep and
hollow tone, "_That's my father's skull!_" "Well then," replied the
adventurer, "if it be thy father's skull, take it." So down he laid it,
and took up another; when the figure replied, in the same hollow tone,
"_That's my mother's skull!_" "Well then," the other again replied, "if
it be thy mother's skull, take it." So down he laid it, and took up a
third. The apparition now, in a tremendously awful manner, cried out,
"_That's my skull!_" "If it be the devil's skull, I'll have it!"
answered the hero; and off he ran with it in his hand, greatly
terrified, and the spectre after him.

In his flight through the church-yard, he stumbled over a tomb-stone,
and fell; which occasioned the ghost likewise to fall upon him, which
increased not a little his fright. However, he soon extricated himself,
and again bent his flight towards the inn, which he soon reached; and,
bolting suddenly into the room, exclaimed, with terrific countenance,
his hair standing on end, "Here is the skull you sent me for: but, by
George, the right owner's coming for it!" Saying which, down went the
skull, and instantly appeared the figure with the white sheet on. This
unexpected intrusion so much frightened all the company, that they ran
out of the house as fast as possible, really believing it was an
apparition from the tombs come to punish them for their sacrilegious
theft. Such power has fear over the strongest mind when taken by
surprise! The undaunted adventurer, however, won his wager; which was
spent at the same house the Saturday following, when the joke was
universally allowed to be a very good one.

THE

HEROIC MIDSHIPMAN;

OR

_CHURCH-YARD ENCOUNTER_.

At a respectable inn, in a market-town, in the west of England, some few
years since, a regular set of the inhabitants met every evening to smoke
their pipes, and pass a convivial hour. The conversation, as is usual at
those places, was generally desultory. One evening, the subject
introduced was concerning ghosts and apparitions; and many were the
dreadful stories then told. A young midshipman, having accidentally
dropped in, sat a silent and an attentive hearer; and, among other
tales, heard a dreadful one of a sprite or hobgoblin dressed in white,
which every night was seen hovering over the graves, in a church-yard at
no great distance from the inn, and through which was a foot-path to one
of the prin