he was returning homeward, he saw Silas Marner leaning against a stile with aheavy bag on his back, instead of resting the bag on the stile as a man in his senseswould have done; and that, on coming up to him, he saw that Marner's eyes wereset like a dead man's, and he spoke to him, and shook him, and his limbs were stiff,and his hands clutched the bag as if they'd been made of iron; but just as he hadmade up his mind that the weaver was dead, he came all right again, like, as youmight say, in the winking of an eye, and said "Good-night", and walked off.

All thisJem swore he had seen, more by token that it was the very day he had been molecatching on Squire Cass's land, down by the old saw-pit.

Some said Marner musthave been in a "fit", a word which seemed to explain things otherwise incredible;but the argumentative Mr. Macey, clerk of the parish, shook his head, and asked ifanybody was ever known to go off in a fit and not fall down.