"'Ha, ha, old fellow! you can speak, can you? Now we shall understand
each other. Yes, I see a box, filled with what looks very like gold
and silver coins.'
"'I placed that treasure there before my death,' added the spectre.
"'Ah, so! than you are dead?' said Sam.
"'One half of that money I wish you to give to the poor, and the other
half you may keep to yourself, if you choose.'
"'Golley!' said Sam, 'you are not much of a swab after all, though you
look as thin as a purser's clerk. Give us a shake of your paw, my
hearty.'
"Here Sam, somehow or other, stumbled over the lamp, and when he got
up again the spectre had vanished. He laid hold of the chest, however,
and groped his way back to the mill. When safe inside, he made a stiff
jorum of grog, and then fell comfortably asleep. That night he dreamt
that he was eating gold and silver, that he was his own captain, that
the cat-o'-nine tails was entirely abolished in the navy, and that his
ship, instead of sailing in salt water was floating in rum. When he
awoke, the sun was steaming through all the nooks and crannies of the
old mill. All the marks of the preceding night's adventures were
there--the gridiron, the empty rum jar, the the table o'erturned in
the _melee_ with the ghost--but the chest of money was gone."
"And what did Sam conclude from that incident?" inquired Fritz.
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