DICK'S GHOST. 101 



The elegy ran something like this : 



" As you appeared from out the Den of Devil's Wood, 



" And as you scared me often by the Devil's Den, 

 " We lay you here in Bishop's Dell, for good, 



" To scare me no more, for ever. Amen, amen." 



At the end of each line old Dick struck the 

 ghost a vicious blow with his stick, and wound 

 up with a series of blows, at the end of the 

 ceremony. There was an end of Dick's ghost, 

 and I never heard any more about it until one 

 evening when father and I were in the " Red 

 Cow" public house. Then the owner of the 

 dog came in, and I heard father, in the course 

 of conversation with him, ask what he had 

 done with the deer hound, as he had not seen 

 him since he had poached the rabbit by the 

 Den. 



"No," replied the farmer, "I sent him to 

 my brother in Norfolk." 



Father and I, on hearing this, looked at each 

 other, but neither said anything. 



Dick Lovering was not a very old man, 

 having enlisted in the army at the age of 

 seventeen, and served twenty one years. After 

 being at home for two years, he took the under- 



