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'Who is there?' cried he, but the figure made no reply, and did

not move or stir. 'Give an answer,' cried the boy, 'or take

yourself off, you have no business here at night.'

The sexton, however, remained standing motionless that the boy

might think he was a ghost. The boy cried a second time: 'What do

you want here?--speak if you are an honest fellow, or I will

throw you down the steps!' The sexton thought: 'He can't mean to

be as bad as his words,' uttered no sound and stood as if he were

made of stone. Then the boy called to him for the third time, and

as that was also to no purpose, he ran against him and pushed the

ghost down the stairs, so that it fell down the ten steps and

remained lying there in a corner. Thereupon he rang the bell,

went home, and without saying a word went to bed, and fell

asleep. The sexton's wife waited a long time for her husband, but

he did not come back. At length she became uneasy, and wakened

the boy, and asked: 'Do you know where my husband is?