"If there's no gate, how--

"She climbs up a ladder on the outside of the wall, which is eight
feet high and two feet thick, and down another which is inside,"
interrupted Mrs. Tate, to whom the question had not been asked. "I
wish to goodness I had been there the day she nabbed your boys, Beth.
I don't wonder they were scared."

"They were certainly scared." Mrs. Moon wiped her lips and smiled
reminiscently. "My boys followed her one day, Mrs. Burnham, and the
result was one of the most ridiculous sights ever seen in Yorkburg.

"After finishing what she had to do that day, Miss Gibbie climbed up
the ladder she keeps inside and started to get on the one outside,
and there was none to get on. The boys had taken her ladder and hidden
it, and they themselves were hiding behind an oak-tree some little
distance off.

"At first they doubled up with laughter when they saw Miss Gibbie
straddling the top of the wall, unable to get down either way; but
suddenly, Richard said, she balanced herself on the top of the wall
and sat there with her feet hanging over as if going to spend the day,
and then in a flash she was down on the ground.

"Half a minute later she had each of them by the arm. Dick said his
feet were dead feet, he couldn't budge. Neither could Frederick. The
sudden jump had paralyzed them.

"'Moon boys!' she said--'Moon boys! Fine fun, wasn't it? Well, let's
go home and have some more fun,' and down the hill she marched them