It gave a kind of cry, as any one of us might do, if something dreadful followed us in a dream, and came upon us unawares; and then it died off: seeming to pass quite round the church.' 'I don't see much in that,' said John, drawing a long breath, and looking round him like a man who felt relieved.
'Perhaps not,' returned his friend, 'but that's not all.' 'What more do you mean to say, sir, is to come ?' asked John, pausing in the act of wiping his face upon his apron.

'What are you a-going to tell us of next ?' 'What I saw.' 'Saw!' echoed all three, bending forward.
'When I opened the church-door to come out,' said the little man, with an expression of face which bore ample testimony to the sincerity of his conviction, 'when I opened the church-door to come out, which I did suddenly, for I wanted to get it shut again before another gust of wind came up, there crossed me--so close, that by stretching out my finger I could have touched it--something in the likeness of a man.

It was bare-headed to the storm.

It turned its face without stopping, and fixed its eyes on mine.

It was a ghost--a spirit.' 'Whose ?' they all three cried together.
In the excess of his emotion (for he fell back trembling in his chair, and waved his hand as if entreating them to question him no further), his answer was lost on all but old John Willet, who happened to be seated close beside him.
'Who!' cried Parkes and Tom Cobb, looking eagerly by turns at Solomon Daisy and at Mr Willet.