on. I've been thinking I must be
an unconscious medium."

"Well," said John, "I, for one, don't believe in that kind of thing:
if the spirits ever told anything worth hearing, or did anything worth
doing, it might be different; but would Darnley or Bothwell or the
abbot, or even any of the smaller fry of monks, come back here to ring
a bell? I know in their place it's what I wouldn't do myself."

"It would depend on where they are and how employed," said Edwin:
"like some other people, they may be dull at home."

"Ah, that's what Bessie said that's sticking in your throat. Man, it's
no use minding what girls say: I never do.

"The spirits must be deplorably dull if ringing a bell is a diversion
to them."

"They may enjoy mystifying us," said Edwin. "Who knows but they are
listening just now, and laughing in whatever they may have instead of
sleeves?"

"I'm not frightened," said Will, "but I don't like subjects of this
kind at bedtime, so I wish you wouldn't say any more about it."

"It seems, however, that the bell was rung by invisible agency," said
John.

"Come, come, we'll stop talking and go to bed," Edwin said.

"But, Edwin," said Will with big eyes, out of which he could not keep
a frightened look, "do you think a spirit did it?"

"No: it is a trick, and you'll find out who did it before long."

"Well," said John, "it was a stupid trick, but cleverly done--very
cleverly done, or whoever did it would not have escaped me."

"I should not like to sleep alone to-night," Will said to his brother
in confidence when they were in their own room, "and I don't believe
you would either, although you don't say so. I wonder if Edwin likes
it, away from every one too, in that room with the hole in its roof? I
wonder papa does not get that hole mended?"

"He has often spoken about it," said John, "but if I slept in that
room I should rather like the hole. It's uncommon: every room hasn't a
hole in its roof. If you couldn't sleep, for instance, you'd have only
to stare at the hole, and you would doze off before you knew."

"Staring at it would only keep me from sleeping," Will said: "I should
always think something was looking at me through it."

"What could look at you but light--moonlight or daylight from the room
above? In the dark you would the hole."

"Let's sleep," said Will; and, forgetting ghosts and bells and all
influences, the two boys were soon asleep.

It is to be hoped the girls were asleep als