The apparition moved towards the door: my brother-in-law put on
his trousers and followed it. The ghost went downstairs into the
kitchen, glided over and stood in front of the hearth, sighed and
disappeared.

Next morning, Joe had a couple of bricklayers in, and made them
haul out the stove and pull down the chimney, while he stood behind
with a potato-sack in which to put the gold.

They knocked down half the wall, and never found so much as a four-
penny bit. My brother-in-law did not know what to think.

The next night the old man appeared again, and again led the way
into the kitchen. This time, however, instead of going to the
fireplace, it stood more in the middle of the room, and sighed
there.

"Oh, I see what he means now," said my brother-in-law to himself;
"it's under the floor. Why did the old idiot go and stand up
against the stove, so as to make me think it was up the chimney?"

They spent the next day in taking up the kitchen floor; but the
only thing they found was a three-pronged fork, and the handle of
that was broken.

On the third night, the ghost reappeared, quite unabashed, and for
a third time made for the kitchen. Arrived there, it looked up at
the ceiling and vanished.

"Umph! he don't seem to have learned much sense where he's been