This chapter's epigraph comes from a famous nursery rhyme: "look to the left / Look to the right / This is a shadow" . It's a reference to a ghost that appears in the daytime, but can also be seen during the night. The narrator explains that the ghost can move around, just like a normal animal, but it's not fast enough to catch up with him after he's held the egg. So the narrator has to grab the egg and run back to the village.