h we heard only the rustle
of leaves and the ticking of branches against each other, "what do you
suppose it was?"

"Wal, there 'tis: you know jest as much about it as I do. Hepsy told
Cinthy it might 'a' ben a dream; so it might, but Cinthy she was sure it
wa'n't a dream, 'cause she remembers plain hearin' the old clock on the
stairs strike four while she had her eyes open lookin' at the woman; and
then she only shet 'em a minute, jest to say 'Now I lay me,' and opened
'em and she was gone.

"Wal, Cinthy told Hepsy, and Hepsy she kep' it putty close. She didn't
tell it to nobody except Aunt Sally Dickerson and the Widder Bije Smith
and your Grandma Badger and the minister's wife; and they every one o'
'em 'greed it ought to be kep' close, 'cause it would make talk. Wal,
come spring, somehow or other it seemed to 'a' got all over Old-town. I
heard on 't to the store and up to the tavern; and Jake Marshall he
says to me one day, 'What's this 'ere about the cap'n's house?' And the
Widder Loker she says to me, 'There's ben a ghost seen in the cap'n's
house;' and I heard on 't clear over to Needham and Sherburne.

"Some o' the women they drew themselves up putty stiff and proper. Your
Aunt Lois was one on 'em.

"'Ghost,' says she; 'don't tell me! Perhaps it would be best ef 'twas a
ghost,' says she. She didn't think there ought to be no sich doin's
in nobody's house; and your grandma she shet her up, and told her she
didn't oughter talk so."

"Talk how?" said I, interrupting Sam with wonder. "What did Aunt Lois
mean?"

"Why, you see," said Sam mysteriously, "there allers is folks in every
town that's jest like the Sadducees in old times: they won't believe in
angel nor sperit, no way you can fix it; and ef things is seen and done
in a house, why, they say, it's 'cause there's somebody there; there's
some sort o' deviltry or trick about it.

"So the story got round that there was a woman kep' private in Cap'n
Brown's house, and that he brought her from furrin parts; and it growed
and growed, till there was all sorts o' ways o' tellin on 't.

"Some said they'd seen her a settin' at an open winder. Some said that
moonlight nights they'd seen her a walkin' out in the back garden kind
o' in and out 'mong the bean-poles and squash-vines.

"You see, it come on spring and summer; and the winders o' the Cap'n
Brown house stood open, and folks was all a watchin' on 'em day and
night. Aunt Sally Dickerson told the minister'