"Why, it was but night afore last," saith he, "up by the old white-thorn that was strake of the lightning, come two years last Midsummer, just at yon reach o' the lake that comes up higher than the rest." "Ay, ay," saith Farmer _Benson_: "and what like were it, Master _Austin_?" "A woman all in white, with her head cut off," quoth he. "Said she aught to thee?" "Nay, I gave her no chance; I took to my heels," quoth he. "Now, _Austin_, that should I ne'er have done," saith Aunt _Joyce_, who believes in ghosts never a whit. "I would have stood my ground, for I did never yet behold a ghost, and would dearly love to do it: and do but think how curious it should be to find out what she spake withal, that had her head cut off." "Mistress _Joyce_, had you found you, as I did, close to a blasted tree, and been met of a white woman with no head, I'll lay you aught you will you'd never have run no faster," saith _Austin_ in an injured tone. "That should I _not_," quoth Aunt _Joyce_ boldly. "I shall win my fortune at that game, _Austin_, if thou deny not thy debts of honour. Why, man o' life, what harm should a blasted tree do me? Had the lightning struck it that minute while I stood there, then might there have been some danger: but because the lightning struck it two years gone, how should it hurt me now? And as to a woman with no head, that would I tarry to believe till I had stripped off her white sheet and seen for myself." "Eh, Mistress _Joyce_," cries old Mistress _Rigg_, "but sure you should never dare to touch a ghost?" "There be not many things, save sin, Mistress _Rigg_, that I should not dare to do an' it liked me. I have run after a thief with a poker: ay, and I have handled a Popish catchpoll, in Queen _Mary's_ days, that he never came near my house no more. And wherefore, I pray you tell me, should I be more feared of a spirit without a body than of a spirit within the body?--_Austin_, if thou meet the ghost again, prithee bid her come up to _Selwick_ Hall and ask for _Joyce Morrell_, for I would give forty shillings to have a good talk with her. Only think, how much a ghost could tell a body!" "Lack-a-day, Mistress _Joyce_, I'll neither make nor meddle with her!" cries _Austin_. "Poor weak soul!" saith Aunt _Joyce_. Whereat many laughed. So, after a while, sat we down to rear-supper; and at after that, gathered in small groups, twos and threes and the like, and talked: and I with _Isabel Meade_, and _Temperance Murthwaite_, and _Austin Park_, had some rare merriment touching divers matters. When all at once I heard Aunt _Joyce_ say-- "Well, but what ill were there in asking questions of spirits, if they might visit the earth?" "The ill for which _Adam_ was turned forth of _Eden_," saith _Father_: "disobedience to a plain command of God. Look in the xviii chapter of _Deuteronomy_, and you shall see necromancy forbidden by name. That is, communication with such as be dead."