230 EEMINISCEXCES OF THE LEWS. 



give old Fred a rest, as the next day we were 

 bound for Dalbeg. My business over, I resisted 

 the hospitable invitations of my friends, and 

 started for Soval somewhere about eight or 

 nine o'clock. It was a fine, bright moonlight 

 night, after the wet morning ; the wind had 

 gone north, and I cracked on best pace for 

 home, with a good caulker of the old Sheriff's 

 excellent whisky. I was cheering myself with 

 the thoughts of the cosy fireside at home, and 

 anticipations of the woodcocks for the morrow, 

 as, doing my four miles an hour, I swung down 

 the hill beyond the five-mile stone, when I was 

 pulled up all of a heap ; for lo ! there, on the 

 haunted rock, stood a boy in a shirt ! The boy's 

 ghost ! I had passed, some half-mile behind me, 

 two or three people on the road, or I think I 

 should have bolted. Instead of this, helped with 

 the Sheriff's caulker, I walked on. The ghost 

 disappeared. This seemed odd, and knowing 

 people were behind me, I got very bumptious, 

 and turned back to have another look : when, 

 as I got back, I saw not the whole, but half 

 the ghost, and then presently no ghost at all; 

 and then there was not the same clear bright- 

 ness as before, and for a few seconds the moon 

 wept behind a cloud over some fair maid's mis- 

 fortunes ; then it broke forth again, slowly, to 



