"See there! see there!—it comes nearer!—look at it now; it has eyes, and ears!—see its awful nose and mouth," cried Aunt Polly Waldron.
"What shall we do?" screamed Nancy Nimblet, all in a tremble. "It will hurt us!—it will kill us! where shall I go?"
"Be quiet, be calm, it cannot hurt you," said Fabens soothingly; "it can't hurt any one. God wouldn't let it."
"Awful!" shrieked Mr. and Mrs. Flaxman in one nasal; scream, "let us run, let us run!"
"It's an evil spirit," said Wilson.
"The old pot-metal Cuss himself has come for us!" cried Uncle Walter. "If I know anything about the Devil, that's him; that's his head and ears, and eyes and teeth, I'll bet a turkey they are!"
"No, no, it cannot be an evil spirit or the Devil," said Fabens, calmly. "The Devil would not appear in such a form to us, and God will guard us from evil spirits."
An agony of terror shook the whole company. Stern and brave Uncle Walter, who could stand before wolves and bears; who could beard the fierce panther in his den, and count his snarling teeth,—even he believed in ghosts, and was afraid of sights and apparitions. It was a horrible object, spirit, devil, or whatever it might be. It looked like a ball of fire, and had features of a grim half-human thing, with huge ears, a wide mouth and grinning rows of monstrous teeth; and they fancied they saw a black body and long tail below it. As they gazed in a transport of terror, Fabens escaped unobserved from the company, passed softly around through the woods, and coming up behind the foul fiend, he grasped its dark form in his arms, and found as he suspected, that it was no other devil than little tantalizing Troffater, with a carved squash shell, set out with an ox's ears, on his head, bearing his idea of a devil's image, and lighted within by a brilliant candle!
The terror of the company soon subsided, and Fabens admonished them against yielding again to such senseless fears; while they all departed for their homes, and the poor transgressor was discharged with a reprimand so sharpened by kindness that it seemed to cleave his heart.