town, but a tall pale man, whose face however she thought she
could recollect He preached very nicely indeed, and there was
not the usual noisy coughing and hawking, which you alvvays hear
at the morning services on a Christmas Day ; it was so quiet,
you could have heard a needle drop on the floor, — in fact, it
was so quiet she began to feel quite uneasy and uncomfortable.
"When the singing commenced again, a female, who sat next
to her, leant towards her and whispered in her ear : ' Throw the
cloak loosely around you and go, because if you wait here till
the service is over they will make short work of you ! It is the dead
who are keeping service.' "
" Oh, Mother Skau, I feel so frightened. I feel so frightened,"
whimpered one of the children, and climbed up on a chair.
- Hush, hush, child," said Mother Skau ; " she got away from them
safe enough ; only listen !—When the widow heard the voice of the person next to her, she turned round to look at her—but what a start she got ! She recognised her, it was her neighbour, who died many years ago ; and when she looked around the church, she remembered well that she had seen both the minister and several of the congregation before, and that they had died long ago. This sent quite a cold shiver through her, she became that frightened. She threw the cloak loosely round her, as the female next to her had said, and went out of the pew ; but she thought they all turned round and stretched out their hands after her. Her legs shook under her, till she thought she would sink down on the church floor. When she came out on the steps, she felt that they had got hold of her cloak; she let it go and left it in their clutches, while she hurried home as quickly as she could. When she came to the door the clock struck one, and by the time she got inside she was nearly half dead — she was that frightened. In the morning, when the people went to church, they found the cloak lying on the steps but it was torn into a thousand pieces. My mother had often seen the cloak before, and I think she saw one of the pieces also ; but that doesn't matter—it was a short, pink, woollen cloak with fur lining and borders, such as was still in use in my childhood ! They are very rarely seen nowadays, but there are some old ladies in the
