One Shadow frightened a man out of drinking alone by making himself into a moving shadow play of the man's possible funeral. The man turned grey, then white, and fled to the drawing room to join his family for a cup of tea.
A Shadow in a preacher's house had the occasion to shadow the preacher as he practiced his sermons while looking in the mirror. As the preacher preached into the mirror, the Shadow made such fun of him on the wall that the preacher at length put away his mirror and directed his thoughts to his people.
Now Ralph Rinkleman turns aside to listen to a rather long Shadow who seemed to be preaching a sermon to other Shadows. His main point seems to be that the Shadows ought to love one another.
Ralph moves on to hear the adventures of some light-hearted Shadows who tried to lighten the mood of a disconsolate magician, I mean musician. (that phrase is George MacDonald's) The musician was discouraged and out of money. The Shadows tried to distract him by doing a silly Shadow dance over his keyboard, but the man was so serious that he wrote down all the notes they stepped on, and made them into music! Then he played the tune over and over, and the Shadows found themselves compelled to keep dancing! The music made the musician very famous and rich, and his financial woes were over.
Now Adela interrupts the story, saying to John that he mustn't try to be funny, because he isn't very good at it. He must stick to sad stories really. She says this with a mischievous look though, so John is encouraged that the stories are having a good effect on her health. 'Never mind,' he tells her, and goes back to reading his Shadow story.
