`` Anne Shirley , do you mean to tell me you believe all that wicked nonsense of your own imagination ? '' `` Not believe EXACTLY , '' faltered Anne . `` At least , I do n't believe it in daylight . But after dark , Marilla , it 's different . That is when ghosts walk . '' `` There are no such things as ghosts , Anne . '' `` Oh , but there are , Marilla , '' cried Anne eagerly . `` I know people who have seen them . And they are respectable people . Charlie Sloane says that his grandmother saw his grandfather driving home the cows one night after he 'd been buried for a year . You know Charlie Sloane 's grandmother would n't tell a story for anything . She 's a very religious woman . And Mrs. Thomas 's father was pursued home one night by a lamb of fire with its head cut off hanging by a strip of skin . He said he knew it was the spirit of his brother and that it was a warning he would die within nine days . He did n't , but he died two years after , so you see it was really true . And Ruby Gillis says -- '' `` Anne Shirley , '' interrupted Marilla firmly , `` I never want to hear you talking in this fashion again . I 've had my doubts about that imagination of yours right along , and if this is going to be the outcome of it , I wo n't countenance any such doings . You 'll go right over to Barry 's , and you 'll go through that spruce grove , just for a lesson and a warning to you . And never let me hear a word out of your head about haunted woods again . '' Anne might plead and cry as she liked -- and did , for her terror was very real .
Her imagination had run away with her and she held the spruce grove in mortal dread XXXXX nightfall .
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