The Canterville Ghost

That's a silly thing to say! You just have to go to bed and put out the light. It is very difficult sometimes to keep awake, especially at church, but sleeping is really easy to do. Even babies know how to do that, and they are not very clever.'

`I have not slept for three hundred years,' said the ghost sadly, and Virginia's beautiful blue eyes opened wide, because she was so surprised; `for three hundred years I have not slept, and I am so tired.'

Virginia became very serious, and her little lips trembled. She came to the ghost and sat next to him, and she looked up into his old, tired face.

`Poor, poor Ghost,' she said softly; `don't you have anywhere to sleep?'

`Far away ,' answered the ghost, in a quiet voice, `there is a little garden. There the grass grows long and deep, there you find flowers like big white stars, there the nightingale sings all night long. All night long he sings, and the cold, white moon looks down, and the yew-tree spreads its giant arms over the people who sleep there.'

Virginia's eyes were full of tears, and she hid her face in her hands. `You mean the Garden of Death,' she whispered.