"
Though I perceived in the communication of my friend something of the
superstition of the sailor, I could not help thinking that common rumor
had made a happy choice in singling out old Mark to maintain her
intercourse with the invisible world. His hair, which seemed to have
refused all intercourse with the comb, hung matted upon his shoulders; a
kind of mantle, or rather blanket, pinned with a wooden skewer round his
neck, fell mid-leg down, concealing all his nether garments as far as
a pair of hose, darned with yarn of all conceivable colors, and a pair
of shoes, patched and repaired till nothing of the original structure
remained, and clasped on his feet with two massy silver buckles. If
the dress of the old man was rude and sordid, that of his grand-daughter
was gay, and even rich. She wore a bodice of fine wool, wrought round
the bosom with alternate leaf and lily, and a kirtle of the same fabric,
which, almost touching her white and delicate ankle, showed her snowy
feet, so fairy-light and round that they scarcely seemed to touch the
grass where she stood.
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