“My singing days, Cousin Bosky, are over,” replied the ill-matched hubby of the “Hollyhock;”
“but, if it please the company, I will tell them a tale.”
CHAPTER XI.
Mr. Merripall, having gathered that the tale was of a ghostly character, would not suffer the candles to be snuffed, but requested his mutes to sprinkle over them a pinch or two of salt, that they might burn appropriately blue. He would have given his gold repeater for a death-watch; and when a coffin bounced out to him from the fire (howbeit it might be carrying coals to Newcastle!) he hailed it as a pleasant omen. Messrs. Hatband and Stiflegig, catching the jocular infection, brightened up amazingly.
THREE CHURCHES IN A ROW
I.=
If you journey westward—ho,
Three churches all of a row,