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