"Why not try it alone?"
"Why it's a sort of an awkward thing to be entirely by one's self in the woods, the livelong night—it is lonesome, you know, sister; and, to tell the truth, I almost suspect I am a little afraid of ghosts."
"Indeed! and you a man! That's a strange fear for a young Coriolanus. Suppose you should get into the wars, and should happen to be posted as a sentinel at some remote spot—far from your comrades; on picket, I think you call it? (Henry nodded) on a dark night, would you desert your duty for fear of a goblin!"
"I would die first, Mildred. I would stick it out, if I made an earthquake by trembling in my shoes."
Mildred laughed.
"And then if a ghost should rise up out of the ground," she continued, with a mock solemnity of manner.
"I would whistle some tune," interrupted Henry. "That's an excellent way to keep down fear."
"Shame on you, to talk of fear, brother."
"Only of ghosts, sister, not of men."
"You must cure yourself of this childish apprehension, master."