“Oh, is it haunted?  Are there any ghosts?” cried Austin, in great excitement.  “I’d give anything in this world to see a ghost!”

“I don’t know as I’d care to sleep in a haunted house myself,” said Lubin, beginning to sweep the lawn.  “Some folks don’t mind that sort o’ thing, I s’pose; must have got accustomed to it somehow.  Then there’s those as is born ghost-seers, and others as couldn’t see one, not if it was to walk arm-in-arm with ’em to church.  Let’s hope Mr St Aubyn’s one o’ that sort, seeing as he’s got to live there.  It’s poor work being a baker if your head’s made of butter, I’ve heard say.”

“Then it is haunted!” exclaimed Austin.  “What a bit of luck.  You see, Lubin, I know Mr St Aubyn just a little, and soon I’m going to lunch with him.  How I shall be on the look-out!  I wonder how it feels to see a ghost.  You’ve never seen one, have you?”

“Oh no, Sir,” replied Lubin, shaking his head.  “I doubt I’m not put together that way.  A blind man may shoot a crow by mistake, but he ain’t no judge o’ colours.  Though ghosts are mostly white, they say.  Well, it may be different with you, and when you go to lunch at the Court, I’m sure I hope you’ll see all the ghosts on the premises if you’ve a fancy for that kind of wild fowl.  Let ghosts leave me alone and I’ll leave them alone—­that’s all I’ve got to say.  I never had no hankering after gentry as go flopping around without their bodies.  ’Tain’t commonly decent, to my thinking.  Don’t hold with such goings on myself.”

“Oh, but you must make allowances for their circumstances,” answered Austin.  “If they’ve got no bodies of course they can’t put them on, you know.  Besides, there are ghosts and ghosts.  Some are mischievous, and some are very, very unhappy, and others come to do us good and help us to find wills, and treasures, and all sorts of pleasant things.  I’d love to talk with one, and have it out with him.  What wonderful things one might learn!”

“Ay, there’s more in the world than what’s taught in the catechism,” said Lubin.  “Let’s hope you’ll have picked up a few crumbs when you’ve been to lunch at the Court.  Every little helps, as the sow said when she swallowed the gnat.  I confess I’m not curious myself.”

“Well, I’m awfully curious,” replied Austin, as he began to get up.  “But now I must stir about a bit.  You know my wooden leg gets horribly lazy sometimes, and I’ve got to exercise it every now and then for its own good.  I know Aunt Charlotte wants me to go into the town with her to buy provender for this bun-trouble of hers to-morrow.  It’s very curious what different ideas of pleasure different people have.”

“He’s a rare sort o’ boy, the young master,” soliloquised Lubin as Austin went pegging along towards the house.  “Game for no end of mischief when the fit takes him, for all he’s only got one leg.  One’d think he was half daft to hear him talk sometimes, too.  Seems like as if it galled him a bit to rub along with the old auntie, and I shouldn’t wonder if the old auntie herself felt about as snug as a bell-wether tied to a frisky colt.  However, I s’pose the A’mighty knows what He’s about, and it’s always the old cow’s notion as she never was a calf herself.”