, where
cleanliness compensated for the want of luxury, and where, over a
blazing fire of peat, the bolder spirits smiled at the imaginary
terrors of the road, and the more timid trembled as they listened to
the tales of terror and affright with which their hosts entertained
them.

One gloomy and tempestuous night in November, a pedlar-boy hastily
traversed the moor. Terrified to find himself involved in darkness
amidst its boundless wastes, a thousand frightful traditions, connected
with this dreary scene, darted across his mind--every blast, as it
swept in hollow gusts over the heath, seemed to teem with the sighs of
departed spirits--and the birds, as they winged their way above his
head, appeared, with loud and shrill cries, to warn him of approaching
dagger. The whistle with which he usually beguiled his weary pilgrimage
died away into silence, and he groped along with trembling and
uncertain steps, which sounded too loudly in his ears. The promise of
Scripture occurred to his memory, and revived his courage. "I will be
unto thee as a rock in the desert, and as an hiding-place in the
storm." _Surely_, thought he, _though alone, I am not forsaken;_ and a
prayer for assistance hovered on his lips.

A light now glimmered in the distance which would lead him, he
conjectured, to the cottage of the old woman; and towards that he
eagerly bent his way, remembering as he hastened along, that when he
had visited it the year before, it was in company with a large party of
travellers, who had beguiled the evening with those tales of mystery
which had so lately filled his brain with images of terror. He
recollected, too, how anxiously the old woman and her sons had
endeavoured to detain him when the other travellers were departing; and
now, therefore, he confidently anticipated a cordial and cheering
reception. His first call for admission obtained no visible marks of
attention, but instantly the greatest noise and confusion prevailed
within the cottage. They think it is one of the supernatural visitants
of whom the old lady talks so much, thought the boy, approaching a
window, where the light within showed him all the inhabitants at their
several occupations; the old woman was hastily scrubbing the stone
floor, and strewing it thickly over with sand, while her two sons
seemed with equal haste to be thrusting something large and heavy into
an immense chest, which they carefully locked. The boy in a frolicsome
mood, thoughtle