gs backwards. "Your hair seems all of a piece."

"Come on down," called Roger at the foot of the stairs, "It will soon be
bedtime, and we want to hear all about it."

"All right, honey," replied Tavia. "We're coming."

Mrs. White had Tavia's dinner brought into the dining-room, so it was
there, between mouthfuls, that the tardy one tried to tell of her mishap
on the train, and the strange adventure that followed it.

CHAPTER III

A LIGHT IN THE WINDOW

"I was worried thinking something had happened to you," said Dorothy as
she poured Tavia's tea.

"And that was the very time that your worry was properly placed," said
Tavia, "for something did happen to me. In the first place, I knew I would
have bad luck, for I dropped my comb while I was dressing."

"Break it?" asked Ned slyly.

"Yep," replied Tavia; "and it was a nice one, too--dark, didn't show--"

"Tavia!" exclaimed Dorothy warningly, for Tavia usually kept Dorothy busy
correcting her possibly impolite speeches.

"All right, Doro. It simply was 'a nice one,' and when I dropped it I knew
perfectly well that I would 'bust' something."

"Did you?" asked Roger, not noticing Tavia's slang.

"Well, I don't know about the cart, but certainly I nearly strangled
yelling at the man with the reins."

Dorothy looked annoyed. She did not mind Tavia's usual queer sayings, but
she knew perfectly well that her aunt would not like such vulgar
expressions. The boys might smile, but even they knew a girl should not
forget to be ladylike in an attempt to be funny.

Dorothy hastened to relieve the tension.

"But when you got out to Gransville, was it dark?" she asked.

"Almost," continued Tavia. "The blackness seemed to be coming down in
chunks. Well, I finally reached the old shack and bribed the man into
hitching up the cart. Of course, it was awfully cold, and he didn't relish
the drive."

"Don't blame him," put in Nat.

"What?" asked Ned. "Not even with Tavia?"

A sofa cushion flew in Ned's direction at that, but Tavia continued:

"The strange part of it was we had to pass a haunted house."

"Haunted house!" repeated Joe, all eager for the sensational part of
Tavia's recital.

"So the man declared. At least, I think he declared, or tried very hard to
do so. You see, I could scarcely tell when he was guessing, declaring or
swearing--"

"What a time you must have had," remarked Mrs. White, with some show of
anxiety.

"Well, I suppose I am exagge