Miss Kippy's whole attitude changed. She caught his hand and clung to it, and the terror came back to her eyes. "You mustn't go," she whispered, her body quivering with excitement. "It'll get me if you do. Daddy kept It away, and you can keep It away; but Aunt Tish can't: she's afraid of It, too! She goes to sleep, and then It reaches at me through the window. It comes down the chimney, there--where you see the brick's loose. Don't leave me, D. Hush, don't you hear It?" Her voice had risen to hysteria, and she clung to him, cold and shaken by the fear that possessed her. Mr. Opp put a quieting arm about her. "Why, see here, Kippy," he said, "didn't you know It was afraid of me? Look how strong I am! I could kill It with my little finger." "Could you?" asked Miss Kippy, fearfully. "Yes, indeed," said Mr. Opp. "Don't you ever be scared of anything whatsoever when Brother D.'s round. I'm going to take care of you from now on." "This me is bad," announced Miss Kippy; "the other me is good. Her name is Oxety; she has one blue eye and one brown." "Well, Oxety must go to bed now," said Mr. Opp; "it must be getting awful late." But Miss Kippy shook her head. "You might go 'way," she said. Finding that he could not persuade her, Mr. Opp resorted to strategy: "I'll tell you what let's me and you do. Let's put your slippers on your hands." This proposition met with instant approval. It appealed to Miss Kippy as a brilliant suggestion. She assisted in unbuttoning the single straps and watched with glee as they were fastened about her wrists. [Illustration: "'Don't leave me'"] "Now," said Mr. Opp, with assumed enthusiasm, "we'll make the slippers walk you up-stairs, and after Aunt Tish undresses you, they shall walk you to bed. Won't that be fun?" Miss Kippy's fancy was so tickled by this suggestion that she put it into practice at once, and went gaily forth up the steps on all fours. At the turn she stopped, and looked at him wistfully: "You'll come up before I go to sleep?" she begged; "Daddy did." Half an hour later Aunt Tish came down the narrow stairway: "She done gone to baid now, laughin' an' happy ag'in," she said; "she never did have dem spells when her paw was round, an' sometimes dat chile jes as clear in her mind as you an' me is." "What is it she's afraid of?" asked Mr. Opp. Aunt Tish leaned toward him across the table, and the light of the lamp fell full upon her black, bead-like eyes, and her sunken jaws, and on the great palpitating scar. "De ghosties," she whispered; "dey been worriting dat chile ever' chance dey git. _I_ hear 'em! Dey wait till I take a nap of sleep, den dey comes sneakin' in to pester her. She says dey ain't but one, but I hears heaps ob 'em, some ob 'em so little dey kin climb onder de crack in de door." "Look a-here, Aunt Tish," said Mr. Opp, sternly, "don't you ever talk a word of this foolishness to her again. Not one word, do you hear?"