Dorothy Dales Queer Holidays | Page 8

thick of it the old man meekly pointed out the haunted
house."
"Did you see the 'haunt'?" asked Dorothy jokingly.
"Saw what my friend declared was the haunt," Tavia replied, "A light
running all over the place as if it might have been tied to a cat's tail."

"A light in the house?" asked Ned and Nat in one breath.
"Certainly. Not on the roof, but behind the big old stone walls. I could
see the place was made of stone, although it was almost dark."
"Why, that place has been deserted for years," declared Nat.
"Then the deserter has returned," answered Tavia, "and the old man
told me folks around there are just scared to death to be out after dark."
"Folks around there? Why, there isn't a house within half a mile of the
park," Ned corrected.
"But don't they ever go to sleep in trains and have to take short cuts
through the lane?" Tavia asked. "They don't exactly have to live in the
park to have occasion to go past it now and then."
The boys laughed at Tavia's defense, but Joe and Roger were impatient
to hear all about the ghost, and they begged Tavia to go on with her
story.
"What did the light do?" asked Roger, edging up so close to Tavia that
his curly head brushed her elbow.
"Why, Roger, dear," said Dorothy kindly, "you must not believe in
such nonsense. There are no such things as ghosts."
"But Tavia saw it," he insisted.
"No, she only saw a light," corrected his sister. "There are lots of
reasons for having lights, even in empty houses. Some one might have
gone in there for the night--"
"Or the rats might be giving a pink tea," joined in Nat with a sly wink
at Joe.
"Or some one might be trying to make gas," Joe fired back, "and
perhaps they were interrupted by the sound of wheels."

"Will you please state, young lady," said Ned, imitating a lawyer
questioning a witness, "just what you saw? Confine yourself to the
question."
"I saw a light--l-i-g-h-t. And I saw it all over the place at the same
time."
"A flame, like a fire?" asked Nat "Perhaps the place is all up in smoke
by this time."
"No, no," said Tavia. "It was about as big as a candle and as rapid as
a--a--"
"Searchlight," suggested Joe.
"See here, children," exclaimed Mrs. White, leaving her place on the
cushioned leather couch and going toward the library, "if you do not
stop telling ghost stories you will have the most dreadful dreams."
"Oh, I'm not afraid, Aunt Winnie," said Roger, taking the caution, as
intended, entirely for his benefit.
"But you might walk downstairs," insisted his aunt, "and you know
how dreadfully frightened you were the night after the party, when you
did walk down in your sleep."
"Oh, that wasn't ghosts, auntie, dear. You said, don't you remember,
that was cake with frosting on it."
"Do you prefer ghost-walks?" asked Nat. "I do believe most fellows
like 'the ghost to walk.' That's what they call pay-day, you know."
"Well, that will be about all," said Tavia as a finish to the recital of her
queer ride. "There is really nothing more to tell."
"Oh, pshaw!" exclaimed Roger, "you didn't tell us--about the light.
When it--"
"Went out--" interrupted Ned, teasing his young cousin.

"Didn't wait for that," explained Tavia, "for the old man made the horse
go, I tell you, when he saw that light floating 'round."
"Well, we will have to go and interview that ghost some day, dear,"
said Dorothy, putting her arm around her small brother. "Doro is not
afraid of ghosts, and neither is her great big brother, Roger."
Interview the ghost? How little Dorothy knew that her promise would
be fulfilled, and how little she dreamed how the strange interview
would be brought about!
With the arrival of Tavia at The Cedars Dorothy felt her Christmas
vacation had actually begun, for the days spent in expecting her guest
were almost wasted in the little preparations that Dorothy always loved
to make to welcome Tavia. But now the real holiday had come, and it
was with hearts and heads filled with a joyous anticipation that the
young folks at The Cedars finally consented to go to bed that night and
start out on the morrow to fulfil at least some of the many plans already
arranged as part of the Christmas holiday.
CHAPTER IV
THE TANGLED WEB SHE WOVE
The day following was clear and crisp, with biting, wintry air, but there
was no sign of snow to make the boys happy, and give them an
opportunity of realizing the much wished for sleigh ride.
"We had better go to town and get some of the