able where there'd be something left after you'd filled yourself as
full as a drum."

Prince Arthur seemed to feel that Hansel and Grettel had struck a wrong
note, and he said, "Upon my word, it seemed to me that the singing and
dancing weren't half bad!"

"They were just perfect," declared Everychild.

"That's really what Arthur meant," interposed Will o'Dreams.

There was almost unanimous agreement then that the song and dance had
been very well done, the strongest testimony of all being offered by
the little black dog, who approached Little Boy Blue and asked, quite
as plainly as if he had spoken, to have the entertainment prolonged.

But as the entire band hoped to be on their way early in the morning,
it was agreed, after a time, that a good night's sleep was the best
thing they could have; and as the sun had now set, they went into the
house, and each chose a place in which to spend the night.

The clamor of voices soon sank to a sleepy murmur; and presently there
was such silence that the house might indeed have been a haunted one,
just as the village superstition held it to be.

There would have been nothing more worth recording in the adventures of
that day but for the fact that Everychild, at the last moment, felt an
irresistible desire to explore the attic of the old house. And this he
undertook to do, after all his companions had, as he supposed, fallen
asleep.

CHAPTER XXI

AN ENCOUNTER IN THE ATTIC

He moved stealthily about the upper story of the house, trying this
door and that. He did not wish to disturb his companions, for he knew
that a sound in the dark would startle them, especially after they had
been told of the rumor that the house was haunted.

The first and second doors he tried opened into empty rooms. The third
and fourth, into closets. But the fifth opened to a narrow staircase;
and ascending this on tip-toe, he presently found himself in the attic.

It was a very solemn place. The eaves sloped down closely as if they
were a sort of hood, meant to hide something evil. There was one
window at the gable end: a broken window, with fragments of glass lying
about it. The light of the moon penetrated the window, making the
fragments of glass glisten, and forming a pale avenue across the dusty
floor.

There were old chests here and there, all mysteriously closed--perhaps
locked. There were old garments hanging in obscure places. They made
you think of persons lurking