An Eventful Christmas Eve

My father was from Berg in Vibyggerå. When he was young, it happened one Christmas Eve that a carter came, driving two loads though he was alone. Now, there was ice on the roads and it was difficult to drive, which is why he hired Dad to go along to Skog and take care of one horse and its load. It was evening and dark when Dad went home. All the way across Gallsättskogen to Träsk-sågen, he heard someone walking side by side with him the entire time. He heard the footsteps so clearly and how it creaked on the frozen road when his companion leaned on a staff. But he saw nothing, and there was no visible person either. When he got closer to Ullånger church, he heard a carriage coming right behind him. It rattled as if with a load of empty bottles, and it seemed to be going very fast. He stepped to the side of the road so he wouldn't be run over. But when the carriage came side by side with him, it suddenly became completely silent. He stood for a long time waiting to hear the horses at least snort, but all was quiet. Then he thought: “Since I’ve encountered so much here, where there has been nothing to fear, what will it be like at the church?” And so, he decided to go over the stream to avoid walking across the churchyard past the church and all the stables. When he had gone a few steps out onto the ice, he thought there was such a strange sound in the ice, which is why he turned back. When he set foot on land, the ice behind him collapsed with precisely the same sound he heard on the road when that carriage came. The water in the stream had receded so that the ice was not resting on the water. Had he gone a couple more steps, he would probably have drowned. Now he seemed to think: “If there are as many evil spirits in the churchyard as there are stables, then I shall still go forward on the road.” And so he went, and encountered nothing more unusual.