kling.

"I have been thinking that perhaps the girl Henrietta was looking for
was the girl we saw being carried away by those women."

"Jess Norwood! Do you suppose so?"

"I don't know whether I suppose so or not," laughed Jessie. "But I
think if I ever see that child again I shall question her more
closely."

She said this without the first idea that little Henrietta would
cross their way almost at once. The canoe touched the grassy bank at
the edge of the old Carter place at the far end of the lake just
before noon. An end of the old house had been burned several years
before, but the kitchen ell was still standing, with chimney complete.
Picnic parties often used the ruin of the old house in which to sup.
It was a shelter, at least.

"I've got to eat. I've got to eat!" proclaimed Amy, the moment she
disembarked. "Actually, I am as hollow as Mockery."

"Well, I never!" chuckled Jessie. "Your simile is remarkably apt. And
I feel that I might do justice to Alma's sandwiches, myself."

"Where's the sun gone?" suddenly demanded Amy, looking up and then
turning around to look over the water.

"Why! I didn't notice those clouds. It is going to shower, Amy, my
dear."

"It is going to thunder and lightning, too," and Amy looked a little
disturbed. "I confess that I do not like a thunderstorm."

"Let us draw up the canoe and turn it over. Keep the inside of it dry.
And we'll take the cushions up to the old house," added Jessie,
briskly throwing the contents of the canoe out upon the bank.

"Ugh! I don't fancy going into the house," said Amy.

"Why not?"

"The old place is kind of spooky."

"Spooks have no teeth," chuckled Jessie. "I heard of a ghost once that
seemed to haunt a country house, but after all it was only an old
gentleman in a state of somnambulism who was hunting his false
teeth."

"Don't make fun of spirits," Amy told her, sepulchrally.

"Why not? I never saw a ghost."

"That makes no difference. It doesn't prove there is none. How black
those clouds are! O-oh! That was a sharp flash, Jessie, honey. Let's
run. I guess the haunts in the old Carter house can't be as bad as
standing out here in a thunder-and-lightning storm."

"To say nothing of getting our lunch wet," chuckled Jessie, following
the dark girl up the grassy path with her arms filled to overflowing.

"Ah, dear me!" wailed Amy, hurrying ahead. "And those strawberries we
came for. I am afraid I shall not have enough to eat witho