A father was sitting at dinner with his wife, children, and a visiting friend. As the clock struck twelve, the stranger saw the door open and a very pale child in snow-white clothes enter.
It neither looked around nor spoke, but went straight into the next room. Soon it returned and left just as quietly. This happened again on the second and third days. Finally, the stranger asked the father who the beautiful child was that entered the next room each noon. "I have never seen it," he replied, nor did he know who it could be.
The next day, when the child appeared again, the stranger pointed it out, but the father, mother, and children saw nothing. The stranger then rose, went to the room door, opened it slightly, and peeked inside.
He saw the child sitting on the floor, diligently digging and searching among the crevices between the floorboards. Upon seeing the stranger, it vanished. He described exactly what he had seen, and the mother recognized the child. "Ah," she said, "it is my dear child who died a month ago."
They lifted the floorboards and found two farthings. The child had once received them from its mother to give to a poor man. Instead, it thought, "You could buy yourself a biscuit with that," kept the coins, and hid them between the boards. Therefore, it found no rest in its grave and returned each noon to search for the farthings. The parents immediately gave the money to a poor man, and after that, the child was never seen again.