Encouraging myself, therefore, with the belief that this was nothing but the print of one of my own feet, and that I might be truly said to start at my own shadow, I began to go abroad again, and went to my country house to milk my flock: but to see with what fear I went forward, how often I looked behind me, how I was ready every now and then to lay down my basket and run for my life, it would have made any one have thought I was haunted with an evil conscience, or that I had been lately most terribly frightened; and so, indeed, I had.
Pensai allora che le mie capre aveano bisogno di essere munte, ciò che soleva essere il mio divertimento della sera, e che per essere stata trascurata in questi giorni metteva in grande scompiglio e travaglio quelle povere creature; in fatti alcune di esse rimasero o in tutto o quasi del tutto prive di latte. Francheggiato quindi dalla persuasione nata in me che l’impronta veduta fosse state quella del mio piede soltanto, e d’aver proprio avuto paura della mia ombra, cominciai ad andare attorno, e tornai alla casa di villeggiatura per mungere le mie capre.