One thin Shadow told of a little boy he found, sick at home, waiting for his mother to return. The Shadow entertained the boy by reaching a long shadowy arm all the way across the ceiling towards the boy, and the boy tried to catch the shadow. It was great fun, and when the boy's mother returned, she said he looked much better.

'Ah!' says Adela, 'that came from Rev. Armstrong's sermon last Sunday.'

The stories continue as the Shadows tell them all around the lake. John keeps reading them in spite of Adela's cheeky comments. Ralph Rinkleman perseveres in his listening and overhears a Shadow's tale of a group of philosophical children he had entertained one night as they sat round a fire. The children had been so intrigued by the Shadow's antics that they began to wonder aloud about the origin of Shadows. I am sure they found the answer, for they were very philosophical children.

One Shadow had saved the life of an old miser, who was being poisoned by his nurse! The Shadow saw her pour a phial of poison into the old man's oatmeal, and drew the man's attention to it by acting out what she was doing on the wall near the old man's bed. The man refused stolidly to eat any of the oatmeal, and the Shadow stood watching from the corner all the night, until the daylight came and scattered him away. In the end, the miser decided to be reconciled to his estranged daughter whom he could trust, and asked her to send away the nurse.