"It's over there somewhere," she said. "The light went out, but it ain't
likely the lantern went with it. Now you go to sleep."

Miss Howes obeyed. She was asleep very soon thereafter. But Thankful lay
awake, thinking and wondering--yes, and dreading. What sort of a place
was this she had inherited? She distinctly did not believe in
what Hannah Parker had called "aberrations," but she had heard
something--something strange and inexplicable in that little back
bedroom. The groans might have been caused by the gale, but no gale
spoke English, or spoke at all, for that matter. Who, or what, was it
that had said "Oh Lord!" in the darkness and solitude of that bedroom?




CHAPTER IV


Thankful opened her eyes. The sunlight was streaming in at the window.
Beneath that window hens were clucking noisily. Also in the room
adjoining someone was talking, protesting.

"I don't know, Hannah," said Mr. Parker's voice. "I tell you I don't
know where it is. If I knew I'd tell you, wouldn't I? I don't seem to
remember what I done with it."

"Well, then, you've got to set down and not stir till you do remember,
that's all. When you went out of this house last evenin' to go to the
postoffice--Oh, yes! To the postoffice--that's where you said you