Hannibal only shook his head with a very troubled expression, but at last he ventured:
"If 'tis a spook, I hope it won't do nothin' wuss to us."
Even across Edith's pale face a wan smile flitted at this solution of the mystery, and she said:
"Why, Hannibal, you foolish old fellow! The idea of a ghost hoeing a strawberry-bed and sticking in bean-poles!"
But Hannibal's superstitious nature was deeply stirred. He had been under a severe strain himself of late, and the succession of sorrows and strange experiences was telling on him as well as on the others. He could not indulge in a nervous fever, like Mrs. Allen, but he had reached that stage when he could easily see visions, and tremble before the slightest vestige of the supernatural. So he replied a little doggedly:
"Spooks does a heap ob quar tings, Miss Edie. I'd tink it was Massa Allen, ony I knows dat he neber hab a hoe in his hand all his life. I doesn't like it. I'd radder hab de weeds."
"O Hannibal, Hannibal! I couldn't believe it of you. I'll go and see
Malcom, just to satisfy you."
CHAPTER XXIII
A DANGEROUS STEP
Edith took her deed, and went first to Mr. Hard. There were both coldness and curiosity in his manner, but he could gather little from Edith's face through her thick veil.