For a moment they looked at each other, and then towards the door, as if expecting that the ghost so often mentioned in the story would really step in among them.
They listened again and breathed very hard.
Still they heard the dismal clanging of the village bells.
“Who is that?”
“What can that mean?”
“How comes this?” said one and all.
“Don’t thee hear it?”
“Why, in course we do.”
“What can it mean?”
“Oh, it’s some o’ the drunken ringers as have got into the steeple, and want to frighten us,” said the courageous butcher.