f gold,
Make even errant cowards bold.

John, rising up without delay,
Went where the spectre led the way;
Which, after many turnings past,
Stopp'd in an open field at last,
Where late the hind had sow'd his grain,
And made the whole a level plain.
The spectre pointed to the spot,
Where he had hid the golden pot:
"Deep in the earth," says he, "'tis laid."
But John, alas! had got no spade;
And, as the night was pretty dark,
He felt around him for a mark,
That he might know again the place,
Soon as Aurora shew'd her face.
In vain he stoop'd and felt around,
No stick or stone was to be found;
But nature now, before oppress'd,
By change of posture sore distress'd,
Gave an alarming crack; a hint
Of what, as sure as stick or flint,
To-morrow morn the place would tell,
If he had either sight or smell.
This done, he rose to go to bed;
He wak'd, how chang'd! the night-mare fled;
The ghost was vanish'd from his sight,
And John himself in piteous plight.

THE

DOUBLE MISTAKE,

OR

_COLLEGE GHOST_.

Mr. Samuel Foote, the celebrated comedian, played the following trick
upon Doctor Gower, who was then provost of his college, a man of
considerable learning, but rather of a grave pedantic turn of mind.

The church belonging to the college fronted the side of a lane, where
cattle were sometimes turned out to graze during the night; and from the
steeple hung the bell-rope, very low in the middle of the outside porch.
Foote saw in this an object likely to produce some fun, and immediately
set about to accomplish his purpose. He accordingly, one night, slily
tied a wisp of hay to the rope, as a bait for the cows in their
peregrination to the grazing ground. The scheme succeeded to his wish.
One of the cows soon after, smelling the hay as she passed by the
church-door, instantly seized on it, and, by tugging at the rope, made
the bell ring, to the astonishment of the sexton and the whole parish.

This happened several nights successively; and the incident gave rise to
various reports--such as, not only that the church was haunted by evil
spirits, but that several spectres were seen walking about the
church-yard, in all those hideous and frightful shapes, which fear,
ignorance, and fancy, usually suggest on such occasions.

An event of this kind, however, was to be explored, for the honour of
philosophy