“Dinner was served by a man-servant, and there were lights and shiny things on the table, and wine, and a smell of cooked food, and queer enough it did seem, to be sure! Suddenly, just as the young man was helping himself to the roast, in walked one of the head ghosts,—an old fellow in armour he was, with a sinfully ugly face. “‘I always did like beef,’ said he, as bold as brass, ‘so I’ll take some!’ and he picked the roast off the silver platter the man was holding, and began to eat it—right in his fingers! “The servant’s eyes bulged out of his head, and I could see his knees giving way. Suddenly down went the silver platter, and out of the house he went, and the other servants after him. I knew _they_ were gone for good! But my young friend at the table looked at his visitor quite calmly. “‘This is very good in you,’ he said. ‘I was feeling a bit lonely this evening, all by myself. What will you have to drink?’ “Well, they ate and drank together amiably enough for a while, but by and by the other ghosts began to come in by twos and threes, and I soon saw there was bound to be trouble. “‘Now, young man,’ said the old fellow in armour, when he had about thirty of his own kind to back him up. ‘We want you to get out. We have owned this house for three hundred and fifty-three years, two months, four days, five hours, seventeen minutes, and half a second. Now, we don’t propose to have you here, disturbing us. Get out!’ “‘_That_ I will not!’ said the young man, with a good show of spirit. ‘It’s you who will get out, you old wretch—’ “Then the ghosts set upon him, all of them at once, and I was sure they would smother him or tear him limb from limb. So into the room I flew, tu-whooing at the top of my lungs. The ghosts all scattered and stood still at the sound, for they all respect an owl. You know an owl’s feather is the only thing that will make a ghost entirely alive again. “The young man got up from the floor panting. I settled down on the dinner-table and addressed the room. I won’t repeat to you my discourse, but it was an admirable one. I have often wished that it might be published. I tried to induce those ghosts to let the boy alone; but they were firm and very angry, and after a while they all flew at him again—in spite of everything I had said! I flapped my way into the thick of the fight, and tried to beat and peck them off. Then, growing quite desperate, I cried, ‘If you will go away, I will give a feather to the leader.’ “That stopped them for a bit, and I let the armoured ghost pull out a tail-feather. Then others came around me and demanded feathers, and, one by one, they pulled and pulled until I was quite tail-less! “The old leader became human first. And he said, looking longingly at the young man, ‘Now that we’re all men together, I’d dearly love to finish that upstart!’