Book One - Chapter 27 Which Tells How and In What Manner I Saw the Ghost

Now, as I went, my mind was greatly exercised as to a feasible
explanation of what I had just heard. That a man so old as the
Ancient should "see things" I could readily believe, by reason of
his years, for great age is often subject to such hallucinations,
but with Simon, a man in the prime of his life, it was a different
matter altogether. That he had been absolutely sincere in his
story I had read in his dilating eye and the involuntary shiver
that had passed over him while he spoke. Here indeed, though I
scouted all idea of supernatural agency, there lay a mystery that
piqued my curiosity not a little.

Ghosts!--pshaw! What being, endowed with a reasoning mind, could
allow himself to think, let alone believe in such folly? Ghosts
--fiddle-de-dee, Sir!

Yet here, and all at once, like an enemy from the dark, old
stories leaped at and seized me by the throat: old tales of
spectres grim and bloody, of goblins, and haunted houses from
whose dim desolation strange sounds would come; tales long since
heard, and forgot--till now.

Ghosts! Why, the road was full of them; they crowded upon my
heels, they peered over my shoulders; I felt them brush my
elbows, and heard them gibbering at me from the shadows.

And the sun was setting already!

Ghosts! And why not? "There are more things in heaven and earth
than are dreamed of in your philosophy."