"Oh, the punishment," he said, and started promptly for the door. "That is why we have a General. Leave it to her." The girls turned appealing faces toward Doris. "Tell us, General," they said, in the tone of martyrdom. "You can not ride in the car again for three whole weeks. When the rest of us drive, you two must walk. And that is all--for you have had quite a little punishment already." The girls thanked her warmly, and went out. In the hall they looked at each other lovingly, and smiled. "Isn't that ducky?" said Zee. "It is not any punishment at all. Somehow since this afternoon the smell of the engine makes me seasick." Treasure quivered. "Ducky? Oh, Zee, it is delicious. Suppose she had made us ride all day to-morrow. I couldn't have stood it." "Anyhow, I guess I proved that I can drive the car," said Zee stoutly. "Only, of course, since father does not wish me to, I shall never think of doing it until I am older." CHAPTER X MR. WIZARD Doris had taken a sudden and unaccountable predilection for morning strolls. The family did not understand it, for she had always been partial to her final morning nap. She did not neglect her work, no indeed, she was getting up early, very ridiculously early--at five o'clock!--and then going around for a jaunt all by herself wherever fancy prompted. To herself Doris admitted candidly that she wanted to see that awfully aggravating Curious Cat, as she called him to herself, though she reproved the twins very seriously for the disrespectfulness of it. But she did not see him. She walked east, west, north and south, but he remained hidden from view. She did not forget that twice he had appeared to the girls in the neighborhood of the erstwhile Haunted House. But it was too far--she could not walk there, however much she wished to do so. Then came a sudden idea. She would take a morning drive, instead of a stroll--and she might, if necessary, walk along the creek herself in search of wild flowers-- Of course, it was too late for wild flowers, far too late--but anyhow one never could tell what one might find. So the very next morning, dimply with the delight of it, she took the car and drove gleefully out to the lovely hickory grove, and ran the car deliberately up beside the road, and waited. No Mr. Wizard gloomed on the horizon. Not even a Corduroy Crab came crashing through the fallen leaves which blanketed the ground around her. So she got out of the car, climbed through the fence, and sauntered comfortably along by the creek, under the big bare trees. Still no angry keeper dashed out upon her. She took small pebbles and tossed them into the trees to see the squirrels go scampering--nobody minded in the least. It was very annoying--like everything else connected with that Curious Cat. She was very near the Haunted House now, so near she could not go any farther. Even a wilful and deliberate trespasser could not walk right into the very doors of an irate proprietor.