gate the clock would go off in the house."

"Say," interrupted Tavia, "I'm not a regular circus. Suppose you let me
get my things off and give us all this signal business later."

"Great idea," acquiesced Nat, being glad of the chance to change his own
costume.

"Come, now, drink this beef tea," commanded Dorothy, as she brought from
the pantry a steaming cup of the fragrant beverage. "You must be perished
inside as well as out."

"Oh, but you should have seen me in that cart!" began Tavia as she sipped
the tea. "You know--I--"

"Missed the train," broke in Ned, who had been just a little joyful that
all his predictions had turned out to be correct.

"Never," replied Tavia; "I was on the 4:10, but I stayed on it."

"Why?" asked Dorothy in surprise.

"Couldn't get off," replied Tavia. "I was talking to the cunningest little
boy, and never knew it until the train was out on the branch, going for
dear life toward--land knows where."

"And you went all the way out to--"

"Indeed I did. I went all the way, and then some. I thought I had gone
even farther than that before the conductor would make up his mind to stop
and let me come back."

"But that train couldn't stop nearer than a telegraph station,"
volunteered Ned. "If it did there might have been a collision."

"I would have welcomed even a collision if some one only had to walk back
home my way," said Tavia. "But to be put off a train at such a place! Why,
I just made a bolt for the first black speck I could see with a light in
it. It turned out to be a farmhouse, and I simply told the man he must
hitch up and drive me here."

"What was the name of the place?" asked the major.

"Oh, something like Gransville, or Grahamsville. I wasn't particular about
remembering the name, major; I really hoped I would forget it."

"Do you mean to say you rode from Gransville in a cart? And we have let
the man go away without giving him a warm drink or anything! Why, Ned,
call up the stable and see if John can catch the fellow; he may not be out
on the road yet," and at the major's order the three boys hurried to
overtake the man, Roger and Joe wrapping quickly in their warm coats and
running out toward the drive, while Ned 'phoned the stable for John to
stop the cart if he could do so.

This interruption left Dorothy and Mrs. White with Tavia, for the major,
too, had left the room, and presently, when Tavia had "thawed out"
sufficiently to move about, she went with