d get your tea, it's set out.
It's night-school night, thou knows, and Master Arthur always likes
his class to time." He lingered, and she continued--"John Gardener was
down this afternoon about some potatoes, and he says Master Arthur is
expecting a friend."

Bill did not heed this piece of news, any more than the slight flush
on his sister's face as she delivered it; he was wondering whether
what Bully Tom said was mere invention to frighten him, or whether
there was any truth in it.

"Bessy!" he said, "was there a man ever murdered in Yew-lane?"

Bessy was occupied with her own thoughts, and did not notice the
anxiety of the question.

"I believe there was," she answered carelessly, "somewhere about
there. It's a hundred years ago or more. There's an old gravestone
over him in the churchyard by the wall, with an odd verse on it. They
say the parish clerk wrote it. But get your tea, or you'll be late,
and father'll be angry;" and Bessy took up her tub and departed.

Poor Bill! Then it was too true. He began to pull up his trousers and
look at his grazed legs; and the thoughts of his aching shins, Bully
Tom's cruelty, the unavoidable night-school, and the possible ghost,
were too much for him, and he burst into tears.

CHAPTER II.

"There are birds out on the bushes,
In the meadows lies the lamb,
How I wonder if they're ever
Half as frightened as I am?"

C.F. ALEXANDER.

The night-school was drawing to a close. The attendance had been good,
and the room looked cheerful. In one corner the Rector was teaching a
group of grown-up men, who (better late than never) were zealously
learning to read; in another the schoolmaster was flourishing his
stick before a map as he concluded his lesson in geography. By the
fire sat Master Arthur, the Rector's son, surrounded by his class, and
in front of him stood Beauty Bill. Master Arthur was very popular with
the people, especially with his pupils. The boys were anxious to get
into his class, and loath to leave it. They admired his great height,
his merry laugh, the variety of walking-sticks he brought with him,
and his very funny way of explaining pictures. He was not a very
methodical teacher, and was rather apt to give unexpected lessons on
subjects in which he happened just then to be interested himself; but
he had a clear simple way of explaining anything, which impressed it
on the memory, and he took a great deal of pains in his own w