will-of

Updated: May 18, 2025

"Have the family," asked Redclyffe of his host, "ever yet made out their claim to this title, which has so long been playing the will-of- the-wisp with them?" "No, not yet," said the Warden, puffing out a volume of smoke from his meerschaum, and making it curl up to the ceiling. "Their claim has as little substance, in my belief, as yonder vanishing vapor from my pipe.

Nathaniel Hawthorne - Doctor Grimshawe's Secret — a Romance

And, what was strangest, neither did our mirth seem to disturb the propriety of the solemn woods; although the hobgoblins of the old wilderness and the will-of- the-wisps that glimmered in the marshy places might have come trooping to share our table-talk and have added their shrill laughter to our merriment.

Nathaniel Hawthorne - The Old Manse (From "Mosses from an Old Manse")