"I forbid you to go near the place," ses Silas. "Send it by post every
week; 15 Shap Street will find her. Put your arm up and swear it; same
as you did afore."

Bill did as 'e was told, and then 'e lay and trembled, as Silas gave
three more awful groans.

"Farewell, Bill," he ses. "Farewell. I am going back to my bed at the
bottom o' the sea. So long as you keep both your oaths I shall stay
there. If you break one of 'em or go to see my pore wife I shall appear
agin. Farewell! Farewell! Farewell!"

Bill said "Good-by," and arter a long silence he ventured to put an eye
over the edge of the clothes and discovered that the ghost 'ad gone. He
lay awake for a couple o' hours, wondering and saying over the address to
himself so that he shouldn't forget it, and just afore it was time to get
up he fell into a peaceful slumber. His wife didn't get a wink, and she
lay there trembling with passion to think 'ow she'd been done, and
wondering 'ow she was to alter it.

Bill told 'er all about it in the morning; and then with tears in his
eyes 'e went downstairs and emptied a little barrel o' beer down the
sink. For the fust two or three days 'e went about with a thirst that
he'd ha' given pounds for if 'e'd been allowed to satisfy it, but arter a
time it went off, and then, like all teetotallers, 'e began to run down
drink and call it pison.

[Illustration: "With tears in his eyes 'e emptied a little barrel o' beer
down the sink."]