"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 exaggerating," said tavia apologetically, "but i am so accustomed to tell things as big as i can make them. brother johnnie won't listen to any tame stories."

"but the haunted house?" questioned joe.

"we are almost there," said tavia as the dinner things were cleared away. "did you ever see an old castle off toward ferndale?"

"the mayberry mansion?" suggested ned.

"perhaps," replied tavia. "it is set in a deep woods or some sort of jungle."

"why, that's tanglewood park," declared nat. "how in the world did you get over that way?"

"took a short cut through a lane," replied tavia, "and when we got right in the thick of it the old man meekly pointed out the haunted house."

"did you see the 'haunt'?" asked dorothy jokingly.

"saw what my friend declared was the haunt," tavia replied, "a light running all over the place as if it might have been tied to a cat's tail."

"a light in the house?" asked ned and nat in one breath.

"certainly. not on the roof, but behind the big old stone walls. i could see the place was made of stone, although it was almost dark."

"why, that place has been deserted for years," declared nat.

"then the deserter has returned," answered tavia, "and the old man told me folks around there are just scared to death to be out after dark."

"folks around there? why, there isn't a house within half a mile of the park," ned corrected.

"but don't they ever go to sleep in trains and have to take short cuts through the lane?" tavia asked. "they don't exactly have to live in the park to have occasion to go past it now and then."

the boys laughed at tavia's defense, but joe and roger were impatient to hear all about the ghost, and they begged tavia to go on with her story.

"what did the light do?" asked roger, edging up so close to tavia that his curly head brushed her elbow.

"why, roger, dear," said dorothy kindly, "you must not believe in such nonsense. there are no such things as ghosts."

"but tavia saw it," he insisted.

"no, she only saw a light," corrected his sister. "there are lots of reasons for having lights, even in empty houses. some one might have gone in there for the night——"

"or the rats might be giving a pink tea," joined in nat with a sly wink at joe.

"or some one might be trying to make gas," joe fired back, "and perhaps they were interrupted by the sound of wheels."

"will you please state, young lady," said ned, imitating a lawyer questioning a witness, "just what you saw? confine yourself to the question."

"i saw a light—l-i-g-h-t. and i saw it all over the place at the same time."

"a flame, like a fire?" asked nat "perhaps the place is all up in smoke by this time."

"no, no," said tavia. "it was about as big as a candle and as rapid as a—a——"

"searchlight," suggested joe.

"see here, children," exclaimed mrs. white, leaving her place on the cushioned leather couch and going toward the library, "if you do not stop telling ghost stories you will have the most dreadful dreams."

"oh, i'm not afraid, aunt winnie," said roger, taking the caution, as intended, entirely for his benefit.

"but you might walk downstairs," insisted his aunt, "and you know how dreadfully frightened you were the night after the party, when you did walk down in your sleep."

"oh, that wasn't ghosts, auntie, dear. you said, don't you remember, that was cake with frosting on it."

"do you prefer ghost-walks?" asked nat. "i do believe most fellows like 'the ghost to walk.' that's what they call pay-day, you know."

"well, that will be about all," said tavia as a finish to the recital of her queer ride. "there is really nothing more to tell."

"oh, pshaw!" exclaimed roger, "you didn't tell us—about the light. when it——"

"went out——" interrupted ned, teasing his young cousin.

"didn't wait for that," explained tavia, "for the old man made the horse go, i tell you, when he saw that light floating 'round."

"well, we will have to go and interview that ghost some day, dear," said dorothy, putting her arm around her small brother. "doro is not afraid of ghosts, and neither is her great big brother, roger."

interview the ghost? how little dorothy knew that her promise would be fulfilled, and how little she dreamed how the strange interview would be brought about!

with the arrival of tavia at the cedars dorothy felt her christmas vacation had actually begun, for the days spent in expecting her guest were almost wasted in the little preparations that dorothy always loved to make to welcome tavia. but now the real holiday had come, and it was with hearts and heads filled with a joyous anticipation that the young folks at the cedars finally consented to go to bed that night and start out on the morrow to fulfil at least some of the many plans already arranged as part of the christmas holiday.