re must be a push button somewhere," suggested Violet, and even in
their present nervous state the other girls laughed at her.

"A push button!" cried Laura. "Do you expect to find electric lights out
in this wilderness?"

"We're lucky if we find a chandelier somewhere," added Billie. "I hope we
don't have to burn candles or lamps. They aren't just exactly what you
might call cheerful."

"And something cheerful is what we need," added Laura ruefully.

"Well, if you're after acetylene gas I guess you'll be disappointed,"
said Mrs. Gilligan as her torch lighted up a wonderful old-fashioned
richly carved candelabrum containing a dozen candles, half burned and
looking rather wilted. "It's candles we'll be burning while we're here."

The girls groaned.

"But they give such a ghostly, flickering light," protested Violet, as if
it were in some way Mrs. Gilligan's fault. "I know I'll never be able to
stand it," and she glanced nervously over her shoulder.

"Well, could you stand the dark any better?" asked Mrs. Gilligan
practically, as she began to light the candles one after another. "There
will probably be other candelabra in the house, and if you get enough of
them burning there's nothing in this world that is prettier. For myself I
just love candle light."

"Yes, when you're in civilization," put in Laura. "But not out here."

"I've found another one!" cried Billie, who had been prospecting on her
own account. "And here's another! Why we'll have a big illumination
before we're through."

"That's the way to talk," said Mrs. Gilligan approvingly, as she crossed
over to Billie's side of the large hall and began to light the other
candles. "If we just make the best of everything and make up our minds
to have a good time, we'll have a good time. And if we don't we might
just as well take the driver's advice and go home again."

"Go home? Well I should just say not!" cried Laura. "The very idea of
such a thing! The boys would tease the life out of us. We'd never hear
the end of it."

"Well then, we're going to have a good time," Mrs. Gilligan decided,
adding, as she turned toward the door: "Where have those men gone? I told
them to bring in the things."

She went out to see about it with the girls at her heels and found the
old man and the boy in a heated argument over something.

"Well, if you want to go into that there haunted house, it's your
concern," the old man was saying in a querulous voice. "As for me,
I