Filled with gratitude and wonder at all the strange events of the
day we betook ourselves to the ford, and by the help of ropes and
stocks our whole party landed safely on the valley side. Another
half-hour brought us into the warm glow of the monk's refectory
fire, where, while supper was prepared, the worthy brothers listened
to a tale at least as marvellous as any legend in their ecclesiastical
repertory. I fancy they must have felt a pang of regret that holy
Mother Church would find it impossible to bestow upon Gluck and
his two noble sons the dignity of canonisation.





II. Steepside
A Ghost Story




The strange things I am going to tell you, dear reader, did not
occur, as such things generally do, to my great-uncle, or to my
second cousin, or even to my grandfather, but to myself. It happened
that a few years ago I received an invitation from an old
schoolfellow to spend Christmas week with him in his country house
on the borders of North Wales, and, as I was then a happy bachelor,
and had not seen my friend for a considerable time, I accepted the
invitation, and turned my back upon London on the appointed day
with a light heart and anticipations of the pleasantest description.