16 WITH THE WOODLANDERS. 



mill-pool surrounded by trees, with a foot-bridge 

 over it has a very evil reputation : they say it is 

 haunted. 



Two men once wanted to marry the same woman 

 a difficult matter, looked at properly and being 

 rivals, they were, as is usually the case, bitter foes. 

 On a disastrous night they met on the bridge over 

 the mill-pool, and one of them was never seen again. 

 Months afterwards the remains of a body were found 

 entangled in the submerged tree-roots. In out-of- 

 the-way places such things were not looked into so 

 sharply as they are now. The man that was left 

 alone on that foot-bridge was ever afterwards a 

 miserable cov/ard in the dark. I knew that from 

 personal observation. So well indeed was this 

 known, that the little school-children used to mock 

 at him. He had a miserable end. As in all other 

 places on the face of the earth, good and evil can be 

 found side by side in the woodlands. 



I have observed that all, townsfolk as well as 

 rustics, hold up their hands for Sunday-schools. 

 No matter whether they belong to the Church of 

 England or to the Nonconformists, all working folks 

 are agreed there. There is a spontaneous acknow- 



