Suddenly Alfaretta screamed, and Molly Breckenridge promptly echoed her; then bounded to Dorothy's side and s.n.a.t.c.hed the violin from her hands.

"Stop it, Dolly, stop it! I couldn't help doing that, for in another minute you'd have had me and--and everybody crazy! What made you----"

"Why, Alfaretta! Whatever is the matter? Why do you stand like that, pointing out into the night as if you'd seen a ghost?" demanded Jane Potter, going to her schoolmate and shaking her vigorously. "Don't yell again. It's--it's more frightful to hear you than it was to be locked up in that hidden chamber, with a spring-locked trap shut between you and liberty." Which was the only admission this self-contained young person ever gave that she had once known fear.

Alfy gulped, shivered, and slowly answered:

"So I did. It--was a ghost. Or--or--just the same as one!

A--lookin'--a lookin' right through the window--with his face--big and white--He--he wore a hat----"

"Wise ghost! Not to cavort around bare-headed on a damp September night!" cried Monty, as much to rea.s.sure his own shaken nerves as those of the mountain girl.

"Dorothy's music was so strange--weird you might say--that she's made us all feel spooky; but we have no apparitions at Deerhurst, let me tell you," said Herbert, consolingly.

"Huh! You may say what you like, but that one apparited all right. I seen it with my very own eyes and n.o.body else's!" retorted Alfaretta, with such decision and twisting of good English that those who heard her laughed loudly.

The laughter effectually banished "spookiness" and as now poor Luna sank down upon the floor in her accustomed drowsiness, her enwrapt mood already forgotten, the Master lifted her in his strong arms and carried her away to Dinah and to bed. But as he went he cast one keen glance toward the windows, where nothing could now be seen--if ever had been--save the dimly outlined trees beyond. Yet even he almost jumped when Jim, having followed him from the room, touched his arm and asked:

"What do you s'pose sent old Oliver Sands to peekin' in our windows?"

[Ill.u.s.tration: THE GHOST AT THE WINDOW.

_Dorothy's House Party._]

CHAPTER XI

MORNING TALKS

"Did anybody ever know such a succession of beautiful days?" asked Helena, next morning, stepping out into a world full of bird-song and sunshine. "And without doing anything extraordinary, nothing that anybody in the world couldn't have done, what a happy time we're having. Why, Dolly darling, you--what's wrong, honey? Are you in trouble? Can I help you?"

Dorothy had been sitting on the broad piazza, waiting for her guests and breakfast, a very sober, worried girl. But she now sprang up to greet her friend and tossing back her dark curls seemed to toss away anxiety also. A smile rose the more readily, too, for at that moment there came around the corner Monty Stark and Danny Smith, kindred spirits, each singing at the top of his voice:

"The elephant now goes round and round, The band begins to play, The little boys under the monkeys' cage Had better get out of the way-- Better get out of the wa-a-a-ay!"

"Mornin' ladies! And let me a.s.sure you there'll be peanuts and pink lemonade enough to go around; for Daniel, my friend here, has just unearthed a quarter from one of his mult.i.tudinous pockets and I'll agree--to-lay-it-out-for-him-to-the-best-possible-advantage--Right this way, ladies and gentlemen, only ten cents to see the Double Headed Woman and to witness the astonishing feat of an Anaconda Swallowing his own Skin! Right this way, only ten----"

"Monty Stark, behave yourself! The place for you, young sir, is in the monkeys' cage, not _under_ it! What have you horrid boys been doing out there in the barn so early, waking tired little girls out of their beauty-sleep?" demanded Molly B., appearing on the scene and interrupting the boy's harangue.

"Oh! Just doing a few stunts. Practising, you know, against they call on us to take part in the 'ceremonies.' But it's a pity about that beauty-sleep. You needed it and I apologize! I mean I never saw you so charming! Hooray for the circus!"

"Hooray!" answered Herbert, coming through the doorway, a twin on either arm. "Say it, 'Nias! Say it, 'Phira!"

The youngsters squirmed to get away, to slide down out of the boy's grasp, but he held them securely till, at last grown desperate, one of them began gravely and distinctly to recite the doggerel which Monty and Daniel had just sung.

The performance received great applause and amid the jests and laughter all turned to follow the summons to breakfast; Herbert restraining the little ones long enough to adjure them to: "Mind, you've promised! And you know what happened to some folks you're named for! No, I shouldn't have said that, poor innocents! I mean you must do what I told you or you'll lose what I promised."

"Yep. We's do it, we's do it! I wants my brekkus!" answered one, while the other echoed: "Brekkus, brekkus!"

Herbert placed them at a small low table in the corner where Dinah had decided they must eat, or "take deir meals; fo' as fo' eatins, dey's cwyin' fo' dem all de whole endu'in time! 'Peahs lak dem li'l ones nebah would get filled up an' nebah had ernough yet in dis yere world."

Yet once at table n.o.body could find fault with their behavior, except for the extreme rapidity with which they stowed away their rations.

They seemed afraid to drop a crumb or mess themselves in any way and the furtive looks they shot out from beneath their long lashes were pitiful, as if they feared their food would be s.n.a.t.c.hed from them and themselves punished with blows. That many blows had been administered, Dinah had early found out, since when bathing them she saw the scars upon their poor little bodies.

This had been sufficient to reconcile her to the extra care and labor their presence imposed upon her; for labor, indeed, they caused. For instance: stealing into the kitchen where Aunt Malinda had set upon the hearth a big pan of bread "sponge," to rise, they industriously dotted its top with lumps of coal from the hod, in imitation of a huckleberry pudding which had appeared at table. They even essayed to eat the mixture; but finding this impracticable set to work to force one another down into the pan of dough--with sufficient success to ruin the new suits they wore as well as Aunt Malinda's "risin'."

Having discovered that sugar was sweet they emptied a jar of what looked like it into a fine "floating island" and turned the custard to brine. They hid Ephraim's gla.s.ses, and Dinah's bandana; they unloosed the dogs, let the chains be fastened ever so securely; they opened the gate to the "new meadow" and let the young cattle wander therein; and with the most innocent, even angelic expressions, they plotted mischief the livelong day. But they redeemed all their wickedness by their entire truthfulness. Despite their handicap of names, they acknowledged every misdemeanor and took every punishment without a whimper.

"They're regular little imps! But, alanna, what'd this big house be widout 'em and their pranks?" cried poor Norah, laughing and frowning together, when called upon for the third time that morning to change the youngsters' clothes; the last necessity arising from the fact that they had filled the bathtub and taken a glorious dip without the formality of removing their garments. "You're the plague of my life, so you are; but poor motherless darlin's, I can't but love you! And sorra the day, when him 't you belongs to comes for you again!"

When that morning's meal was over, the Master planned their day as had become his habit. Said he:

"A circus day and the first day of the county fair, as this is, will crowd the streets of the city with all sorts of teams and people. I've decided not to risk Mrs. Calvert's horses in Newburgh to-day. We can all go up by train and have no anxiety about anything. It's but a down-hill walk, if a rather long one, from here to our own station, and in town there'll be plenty of stages to carry us to the grounds.

Jim has consented to ride over on horseback early and secure our places on the front row of seats, if this is possible. I've seen no reserved seats advertised, but I don't like those insecure upper benches--or boards--of the tiers of scaffolding, where a fellow has to swing his feet in s.p.a.ce or jab his toes into the back of the spectator below. Besides, I always did like to be close to the 'ring' when I go to the circus."

"O, Teacher! As if you ever went!" cried Alfaretta, giggling.

"Go? Of course I go every chance I get--to a real country circus--which isn't often. There's nothing so convinces me that I am still a little boy as the smell of tanbark and sawdust, and the sound of the clown's squeaking voice!"

They laughed. It was so easy and so natural to laugh that morning.

Even Helena, who had enjoyed many superior entertainments, felt her pulses thrill in antic.i.p.ation of that day's amus.e.m.e.nt; and she meant to let herself "go" for all the fun there might be, with as full--if not as noisy an abandon--as any "mountain girl" among them.

Continued Mr. Seth, closely observing Dorothy who, alone of all the company, was not smiling: "Now, for the morning. I suggest that you pa.s.s it quietly at home; tennis, reading, lounging in hammocks--any way to leave yourselves free from fatigue for the afternoon. Dinah says 'Y'arly dinnah'; because all the 'help' want to go to the circus and I want to have them. So we must get the dishes washed betimes, for the 'Greatest Show On Earth' opens its afternoon performance at two o'clock sharp precisely to the minute! and I, for one, cannot, positively cannot, miss the Grand Entrance! Umm. I see them now, in fancy's eye, the cream colored horses, the glittering spangles, the acrobats in tights, the monkeys, the--the----"

"Oh! Don't say any more, dear Master, or I shall have to ride over with Jim this morning and see the street parade!" cried Molly Breckenridge clasping her plump hands in absurd entreaty, while every lad present looked enviously upon the thus honored James.

"_I_ could buy circus tickets if I put my whole mind to it. How about you, Littlejohn Smith?" observed Monty.

"Give me the cash and let me try!"

Danny said nothing but his eyes were wistfully fixed upon vacancy, while Frazer Moore sadly stated:

"All I ever did see about a circus--so far--was the parade. I run away to that--once."

"And got a lickin' for it afterwards, I remember," commented Mike Martin.

This was too much for the discipline of that dear old "boy," Seth Winters, and he cried:

"See here, lads! I can't stand for that. Nor need I be afraid of fatigue for _you_. Nothing will tire a single boy of the lot, to-day, except missing some part of this delectable Show! Scamper! Scatter!

Trot! Vamoose! In short, run to the stables and see if there are horses enough to go around, counting in the workers. There'll none of them be needed at Deerhurst to-day. Then you can all ride to town with our treasurer and put your horses up at the big livery on the High Street back of the town. See to it that they are made perfectly safe and comfortable for the day, and tell the proprietor that they are to be looked after for me. Here, Jamie lad, is an extra ten dollar bill.

Use it judiciously, for anything needed, especially for luncheon for eight hungry boys. Better get that at some reputable restaurant and not on the grounds. Also, one of you meet the rest of us at the station at one o'clock with the tickets. Our whole big Party will make our own Grand Entrance!"

"Oh! thank you, thank you!"