Page:Sylvester Sound the Somnambulist (1844).djvu/72

 " Good!" said Click. "Legge and I will go at once. You had better come with us."

"I!" exclaimed Pokey.

"To be satisfied, of course!"

"Well, we don't want to go very near?"

"Oh no; just come with us." And Pokey did go with them; but long before they had reached the gate, he stopped, and cried, pointing to the window—"There—there! There it is! Don't you see it?"

They looked, and certainly did see something: they saw something move: they, moreover, heard a voice; and the voice did proceed from that window.

"Let us go a little nearer," said Click, who at that moment didn't feel exactly the thing; his heart didn't beat with its accustomed regularity: it thumped and stopped, and blundered about, as if it didn't care whether it worked or not; but as he wasn't inspired with absolute fear, they went a little nearer, and as they approached, Aunt Eleanor, who knew Legge well by his arms, which he at all times swung in a most extraordinary fashion, cried out—"Is that you, Mr. Legge?"

"Yes, ma'am," replied Legge, promptly, for he knew the voice in an instant. "Is there anything amiss, ma'am?"

"What, in the name of goodness, did those persons want here just now?"

"They thought they saw a ghost, ma'am."

"Ridiculous! I really have no patience with such folly."

"I know," observed Pokey, "that something appeared, and at that very window, too."

Twas I, you simple man," said Aunt Eleanor. "You saw me appear at the window. I'm ashamed of you. Tell them from me, Mr. Legge, that if they come here again, I'll have them all taken up: they shall all be punished: I will not submit to be thus annoyed. Good night."

She then retired from the window, and they, being quite satisfied, returned to their friends; the whole of whom felt exceedingly mortified on learning, not only that they had been thus deceived, but that they had been the cause of annoyance to a lady, who had been so kind to the poor around, and to whom the whole village had reason to be grateful.

They, notwithstanding, had Pokey's two gallons in: and Click, in order to heal the deep wounds he had inflicted upon the feelings of Obadiah, ordered two gallons more, but Obadiah again and again declared he'd never forgive him: nor when the party, at midnight, broke up, had a reconciliation between those two gentlemen been effected.