Page:Over fen and wold; (IA overfenwold00hissiala).pdf/331

 Had he been austere, probably we should have been grave. Just then this ghost-hunting expedition struck us as being intensely comical. The priest smiled again, we smiled our best in reply. We intuitively felt that his smile was a smile of unbelief—in the ghost, I mean. "Well, I'm afraid," he replied, "the worthy body is of a romantic temperament. I understand that the bones are not human bones after all, but belonged to a deceased pig. You know in the off-season gigantic goose-*berries, sea-serpents, and ghosts flourish in the papers. You cannot possibly miss the house. When you come to the end of the next field, you will see it straight before you," and so we parted. Somehow the priest's remarks damped our ardour; either he did not or would not take the ghost seriously!