"It''s someone who ain't," said the little boy. "Nol," said his friend, "It's someone who is but who looks like he ain't." So there you have it, all nice and clear. Now you know what a ghost really is, and you'd recognize him if you met him.
They go by many names: spooks, spirits, phantoms, spectres, ha'nts. There are good ghost and bad ghost; lively, mischievous ghost and oh-so-sad ghosts who walk because they are unhappy creatures, eternally searching for something, or uneasy until something has been put right, like the ghost in this book who wanted his bones all collected in one spot. There are even animal ghosts, pets who come back to their masters, or wild animals who guide people out of trouble likethe white stag did the Huns. There are ghost riders heard in the night. A bus once disappeared with all of its passengers, so the story goes, and now, once in awhile in the night, a phantom bus is seen to slide swiftly along the highway.
Empty houses, graveyards and old inns with dire histories are supposed to be haunted. In one such the ghost of an old sea captain with a wooden leg walks each night down the stairs with a clomp, clomp, clomp. Many people swear to hearing him. Ocean -born Mary of whom you'll read in this book has been seen byh many, dropping something down the well.
If you feel a prickly sensation at the back of your neck, a slight breeze as of someone passing you on the stairs, it may be just a poor lonely ghost going about his ghostly business. (P.F)
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