LANE GHOSTS.

CHAPTER I.

"Cowards are cruel."

OLD PROVERB.

This story begins on a fine autumn afternoon, when at the end of a field
over which the shadows of a few wayside trees were stalking like long
thin giants, a man and a boy sat side by side upon a stile. They were
not a happy looking pair. The boy looked uncomfortable, because he
wanted to get away, and dared not go. The man looked uncomfortable also;
but then no one had ever seen him look otherwise, which was the more
strange as he never professed to have any object in life but his own
pleasure and gratification. Not troubling himself with any consideration
of law or principle--of his own duty or other people's comfort--he had
consistently spent his whole time and energies in trying to be jolly;
and though now a grown-up young man, had so far had every appearance of
failing in the attempt. From this it will be seen that he was not the
most estimable of characters, and we shall have no more to do with him
than we can help; but as he must appear in the story, he may as well be
described.

If constant self-indulgence had answered as well as it should have done,
he would have been a fine-looking young man; as it was, the habits of
his life were fast destroying his appearance. His hair would have been
golden if it had been kept clean. His figure was tall and strong; but
the custom of slinking about places where he had no business to be, and
lounging in corners where he had nothing to do, had given it such a
hopeless slouch, that for the matter of beauty he might almost as well
have been knock-kneed. His eyes would have been handsome if the lids had
been less red; and if he had ever looked you in the face, you would have
seen that they were blue. His complexion was fair by nature, and
discolored by drink. His manner was something between a sneak and a
swagger, and he generally wore his cap a-one-side, carried his hands in
his pockets, and a short stick under his arm, and whistled when any one
passed him. His chief characteristic perhaps was a habit he had of
kicking. Indoors he kicked the furniture; in the road he kicked the
stones; if he lounged against a wall he kicked it; he kicked all
animals, and such human beings as he felt sure would not kick him again.

It should be said here that he had once announced his intention of
"turning steady, and settling, and getting wed." The object of his
choice was the prettiest girl in the vil