Ralph tries to hear what the Shadows are saying, but finds he cannot understand them at first. One of his shadowy attendants notices this and takes him by the head and ears and puts them to rights. After this Ralph can understand the Shadows' stories.
Now many Shadows are speaking at once, all around the frozen lake, and each has a small crowd of listeners--rather like blogging :) Ralph rises and begins to wend his way through the clusters of listeners. He hears many stories, some which make him laugh, and others that make him cry. Here are some of the stories he hears:
A gloomy old Shadow is telling how he had gotten a murderer to repent. He had cast himself on the wall and reminded the man of something, only the man knows what, and the miserable man had gone and turned himself in.
Another Shadow had gotten a fashionable mother to repent by projecting himself in the form of a little coffin on a wall. This brought about a change for the better in her care for her remaining children.
Okay so where are the funny stories?
The next Shadow had kept a good young man from marrying a deceptively fair young woman who was not yet all he thought she was. The Shadow had landed on her forehead, making her look, well, more like what she tended towards, so the young man didn't marry her yet.
