"Just look at this, Tavia," said Dorothy, dragging from the closet the
stuffed figure of a man. "Isn't he perfectly lovely? Such a--"

"Fine figure," ventured Tavia, now quite calm, and perhaps a trifle
embarrassed, for she had made such a fuss, saying he almost grabbed her,
and all that.

The joke surely had been a success, and it took some time to allay the
spirits of the boys, from Ned to Roger.

Each seemed to attribute the success of the "ghost" to his own particular
talent in that line, and when finally Mrs. White insisted that every one
go to bed, echoes of laughter would peal out from behind closed doors, and
the girls promised to get even, if they had to do so out in Tanglewood
Park, "where the real ghost would not stand for any nonsense."




CHAPTER IX

THE LITTLE WOMAN IN BLACK


Again Dorothy invited Tavia to go to the city with her, but Tavia refused
on the plea that her head threatened to ache, and she thought it best to
stay at home. So on the morning following the boys' joke with the stuffed
man, Dorothy got ready early and hurried for the business train to the
city.