The church tower

The first great deed of our main character takes place in the church tower. Mr. Sexton decides to teach the boy what fear is, and in order to do this, he can´t think of anything better than to get dressed up as a ghost and appear unexpectedly in the darkness of the night and give the poor boy a fright.

We don’t know if Mr. Sexton’s intentions were good, and wanted to show him what fear was. By contrast, it seems to be a practical joke of bad taste and what the verger really wanted was to make fun of the wretched boy’s ignorance. We have to imagine the darkness of the night, the narrow and humid steps of the church tower, the fear that rationally inspire the churches and the graveyards (in the old days, the dead people were buried inside the church). And, in this dismal atmosphere, the irruption of a ghost is able to frighten the most valiant. Instead of that, the boy, who certainly doesn’t know what fear is, faced the ghost, and after threatening him three times to speak or go away, he threw him down the stairs, with the very bad luck that the man wailed in pain.

After that, Mrs Sexton returns the youth to his house, and his parents, very ashamed, decided to through him away of their home. The youth had now to travel alone all around the world. They also forbid him to tell anybody who he was or from where he comes from.