I laughed so at all this, that it was
some time before I could speak; when I told her I did hear a thumping on
the stairs. "Did it seem to go up, or down?" inquired she, anxiously;
and on my telling her that the sound went downward, she set up a sad
cry, and they all came fleeing into the corn-loft, the girls bouncing
upon my bed, and hiding under the blanket, and the old woman praying and
groaning, and saying that she did believe it was the spirit of her poor
husband. By this time my uncle, who was lying on the settle in the room
below, hearing the noise, got up, and stumbling over the pumpkin, called
to know what was the matter. Thereupon the woman bade him flee up
stairs, for there was a ghost in the kitchen. "Pshaw!" said my uncle,
"is that all? I thought to be sure the Indians had come." As soon as I
could speak for laughing, I told the poor creature what it was that so
frightened her; at which she was greatly vexed; and, after she went to
bed again, I could hear her scolding me for playing tricks upon honest
people.
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