`` Fiddlesticks ! There is no such thing as a haunted wood anywhere . Who has been telling you such stuff ? '' `` Nobody , '' confessed Anne . `` Diana and I just imagined the wood was haunted . All the places around here are so -- so -- COMMONPLACE . We just got this up for our own amusement . We began it in April . A haunted wood is so very romantic , Marilla . We chose the spruce grove because it 's so gloomy . Oh , we have imagined the most harrowing things . There 's a white lady walks along the brook just about this time of the night and wrings her hands and utters wailing cries . She appears when there is to be a death in the family . And the ghost of a little murdered child haunts the corner up by Idlewild ; it creeps up behind you and lays its cold fingers on your hand -- so . Oh , Marilla , it gives me a shudder to think of it . And there 's a headless man stalks up and down the path and skeletons glower at you between the boughs . Oh , Marilla , I would n't go through the Haunted Wood after dark now for anything . I 'd be sure that white things would reach out from behind the trees and grab me . '' `` Did ever anyone hear the like ! '' ejaculated Marilla , who had listened in dumb amazement .
`` Anne Shirley , do you mean to tell me you believe all that wicked nonsense XXXXX your own imagination ? ''
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