ral in
all my life; but the money they squandered away would have been better
laid out in little books for children, or in meat, drink, and clothes
for the poor.

All the country round came to see the burying, and it was late before
the corpse was interred. After which, in the night, or rather about
two o'clock in the morning, the bells were heard to jingle in the
steeple, which frightened the people prodigiously, who all thought it
was Lady Ducklington's ghost dancing among the bell ropes. The people
flocked to Will Dobbins, the clerk, and wanted him to go to see what
it was; but William said he was sure it was a ghost, and that he would
not offer to open the door. At length Mr. Long, the rector, hearing
such an uproar in the village, went to the clerk, to know why he did
not go into the church, and see who was there. "I go, sir?" says
William; "why, the ghost would frighten me out of my wits!" Mrs.
Dobbins, too, cried, and laying hold of her husband, said he should
not be eat up by the ghost. "A ghost, you blockhead," says Mr. Long,
in a pet; "did either of you ever see a ghost in a church, or know
anybody that did?" "Yes," says the clerk, "my father did once in the
shape of a windmill, and it walked all around the church in a trice,
with jack boots on, and had a gun by its side, instead of a sword." "A
fine picture of a ghost, truly," says Mr. Long; "give me the key of
the church, you monkey, for I tell you there is no such thing now,
whatever may have been formerly." Then taking the key, he went to the
church, all the people following him. As soon as he had opened the
door, what sort of a ghost do you think appeared? Why, Little
Two-Shoes, who being weary had fallen asleep in one of the pews during
the funeral service, and was shut in all night. She immediately asked
Mr. Long's pardon for the trouble she had given him, told him she had
been locked into the church, and said she should not have rung the
bells, but that she was very cold, and hearing Farmer Boult's man go
whistling by with his horses, she was in hopes he would have gone to
the clerk for the key to let her out.

VII

CONTAINING AN ACCOUNT OF ALL THE SPIRITS OR THINGS SHE SAW IN THE
CHURCH

The people were ashamed to ask Little Madge any questions before Mr.
Long, but as soon as he was gone, they all got round her to satisfy
their curiosity, and desired she would give them a particular account
of all that she had heard or seen.

HER TAL